2026-07-13
Goodhart's Law: When Metrics Stop Measuring What Matters
- 95% Dutch average accuracy
- 372-day streak
- Level 23, going to 24
And still, I can't have a conversation in Dutch. This is just a Monday morning reminder that with the wrong metrics, you might look very productive while going absolutely nowhere.
Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Which shows up in my Duolingo journey by a dozen times where I saved my streak at 23:57, rushing through the exercise (0 learning here).
Make sure the outcome is the #1 metric. The outputs that are supposed to reflect the outcome just come as extras. 💁🏻♂️
Any metrics you've found totally irrelevant, lately? 😅
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TOP COMMENTS
Don't rely on DuoLingo to teach you conversational languages. I got pretty far in my French lessons to find out I have not really advanced much more than I already knew when I visited a friend in France :D
After that I just used DuoLingo as a game to score higher in the leagues.
Julya
Hey, but at least you have the streak! (Says someone with a 2634(!) day streak who still doesn’t feel comfortable conversing in Swedish nor Italian)
Let’s say that gamification is Goodhart’s Law at its worst…
Dries