PERVERSION OF METRICS

In the 1990s in Europe, far too much milk was produced because it was highly subsidized. The commonly used terms in the news were “milk sea” and “mountain of butter.” This drove the price so far down that milk was transformed into a more storable form like butter and milk powder.

But even those actions eventually reached their limit. Finally, the European Union decided that the number of milk-producing cows needed to be reduced.

As proof that they were following through on this plan, farmers were asked to mail in an ear of each slaughtered cow. Once the ear was received, a financial money reward was sent to the farmer.

The first mistake was that the EU did not ask for a specific ear, left or right. The second mistake was that cows are able to live without ears.

At some point, reporters discovered whole fields with earless cows.

The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution makes a problem worse, an instance of unintended consequences. The term stems from an anecdote set at the time of British rule of colonial India.

The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi. The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward.

Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the now-worthless snakes free. As a result, the wild cobra population further increased.

The apparent solution for the problem made the situation even worse.

Conclusion:

There is neither good nor bad news; there is only data. If you punish bad news, you will only get good news or, more accurately, camouflaged bad news made to look good.

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

"Goodhart’s law".

Reference: "The professional product owner", Don McGreal & Ralph Jocham.