The Quantification Trap

This article discusses the quantification trap, a concept where numerical summaries created to simplify communication in complex systems become authoritative and real, leading to blind optimization of decontextualized metrics. It references works by James C. Scott, Alain Desrosières, Theodore Porter, and Jean-François Lyotard to trace the history of quantification in statecraft and bureaucracy. The author argues that despite widespread recognition of the pitfalls of metrics (such as Goodhart's Law), society continues to organize around statistical summaries. The piece examines the tension between the benefits of making society computable and the costs of reducing complexity to numbers, making it relevant to IT/technology discussions about benchmarking, performance metrics, and algorithmic governance.