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Goodhart’s Law & The 1902 Hanoi Rat Massacre

Goodhart's Law & The 1902 Hanoi Rat Massacre

Goodhart’s Law & The 1902 Hanoi Rat Massacre

What do Goodhart’s Law and bounty hunters searching for rats in Vietnam have in common? In the case of Hanoi in 1902, quite a lot. The story serves as the ultimate warning: If too much emphasis is put on a metric measuring success, the purpose of the action will be lost, and the metric no longer works.

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