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I loved it when I read it a while ago and it was a pleasure to read it again. However, it leaves a bitter aftertaste, and not just because I am one of the culprits. It makes me wonder is what's the alternative. (1/n)
Much of the criticism I read in the essay is not towards quantification per se, but towards bad quantification. School testing induces teaching to the test? That means we need better outcome measures! Police is doing CompStat? Who decided those were good outcomes? (2/n)
Politicians, the ultimate short-term maximizers. Politicians feast on emphasizing non-quantifiable outcomes. Zero discounting leads not just to illogical outcomes, but is morally naive as it implies trading off real suffering today with uncertain benefits in the future (3/n)
Policy-maker discretion based on non-quantifible dimensions and dubious moral arguments are as bad as lamp-post quantification and crass utilitarianism. @ethanbdm thanks for the thoughtful essay. I am not sure there are alternatives to (better) quantification. (4/n)
