Few people are so stupid that they believe moving some number is the same as doing well. There are lots of times when moving some arbitrary number is rewarded, and we know that humans respond to incentives. It's perfectly logical, and even the best strategy in some situations.
People who pull tactical games like this might be able to get by, or do well, or become captains of dying industries, but fundamentally we can probably agree they are assholes. Plenty go along because they are playing the junior edition same game with the junior edition of the same strategy. When there isn't a risk of repercussions, or when they feel like they have a chance to gain credibility, or whatever motivations big smart apes really act out of, they loudly laugh at and mock the asshole; because of the hurt they feel at wasting the part of their life that was spent doing something so obviously worthless, and because of the shame and regret of compromising themselves, and because it's a good move.
Some people have real problems. Some people don't get enough food to eat. Someone could say that it's a form of privilege to have problems like "I don't believe in my job". It almost certainly is.
Somewhere in some country where people die of things that people just don't die of other places, there are people officially working on things, and money being spent, all kinds of activity done because someone feels like that is their best strategy, and the people involved know it's stupid and pointless and a waste, and they know there are people suffering that could suffer less.
It's easy to play along. It's easy to play a strategy that maximizes personal outcomes. In fact, the people at the top almost certainly got there by playing such a strategy. It seems likely that it's an evolutionarily stable strategy, despite the implication that a lot more suffering is going to happen.
I'm saying that your advice is pointless, because nobody who could benefit from your advice chases a metric because they don't realize the things you say in the article. The things you say are obvious, and anyone who doesn't find them obvious is so profoundly stupid that there are thousands of basic skills they lack besides the one your advice corrects.
They chase metrics because they are in a situation where moving those numbers does something. In the case of the startup you mention, they could use the user count graph to raise money, which is probably what they were trying to do.
I go on to say that doing things like moving a metric for its own sake is really an example of deceptive signaling, which is pervasive in human affairs. On the way I point out the fact that deceptive signaling is often performed by a team of people, and many of the team members or employees actively work on such things despite having to grapple with moral reservations, and I talk about that for a bit, and point out they are not really innocent, but are acting primarily out of self interest.
Next, I talk about how many or most of the major problems in the world are due to resources being wasted because someone calculates that they can benefit more by using those resources to engage in deceptive signaling than by helping people, and they have many accomplices that recognize what is happening but assist anyway.
Finally, I point out that this is likely a dominant strategy, so there is almost no way to become powerful or remain in power except by engaging in such activities (using available resources in the way that maximizes power rather than any other consideration, such as preventing starvation), and I close by expressing my regret that this is so.
But, what's the point of articles like this?
Few people are so stupid that they believe moving some number is the same as doing well. There are lots of times when moving some arbitrary number is rewarded, and we know that humans respond to incentives. It's perfectly logical, and even the best strategy in some situations.
People who pull tactical games like this might be able to get by, or do well, or become captains of dying industries, but fundamentally we can probably agree they are assholes. Plenty go along because they are playing the junior edition same game with the junior edition of the same strategy. When there isn't a risk of repercussions, or when they feel like they have a chance to gain credibility, or whatever motivations big smart apes really act out of, they loudly laugh at and mock the asshole; because of the hurt they feel at wasting the part of their life that was spent doing something so obviously worthless, and because of the shame and regret of compromising themselves, and because it's a good move.
Some people have real problems. Some people don't get enough food to eat. Someone could say that it's a form of privilege to have problems like "I don't believe in my job". It almost certainly is.
Somewhere in some country where people die of things that people just don't die of other places, there are people officially working on things, and money being spent, all kinds of activity done because someone feels like that is their best strategy, and the people involved know it's stupid and pointless and a waste, and they know there are people suffering that could suffer less.
It's easy to play along. It's easy to play a strategy that maximizes personal outcomes. In fact, the people at the top almost certainly got there by playing such a strategy. It seems likely that it's an evolutionarily stable strategy, despite the implication that a lot more suffering is going to happen.