McNamara Fallacy
- Measure whatever can be easily measured.
- Disregard that which cannot be measured easily.
- Presume that which cannot be measured easily is not important.
- Presume that which cannot be measured easily does not exist.
The implications of each of the 4 steps of the fallacy are as follows:
- This is ok as far as it goes.
- This is artificial and misleading.
- This is blindness.
- This is suicide (at least as it applies to war).
In a nutshell, the McNamara fallacy is when a decision is based solely on numbers (e.g. metrics or statistics) and all qualitative factors are ignored. Doing this makes us blind to what is really going on, and it applies to many more situations that just war. > From <https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/07/the-mcnamara-fallacy/> > From <https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/07/the-mcnamara-fallacy/>
