Canonical · Systems & Incentives · Paper

Goodhart's Law

Charles Goodhart · 1975

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

The idea

Any metric that starts as a rough proxy for something you care about degrades once you tie rewards to it. People optimize for the number, not the thing. Test scores, LOC written, closed tickets, likes — all Goodhart-vulnerable.

Why it works

The takeaway — recall it first

The French Garden and the English Garden

"New systems are usually built like French formal gardens — a geometry imposed from above that flattens whatever was already there — when they could instead be built like English landscape gardens, which study the existing terrain and work with what's already load-bearing."

Will Manidis · EssayContinue→