unmeasurable goals

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
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So I was doing a self performance evaluation at work the other day… and it got me thinking

A good approach to this (perhaps) is to define goals and measure your progress… to always keep bettering yourself.

In many ways this makes perfect sense… because the goal is measurable, you can track progress… the goal now has some tangibility.

Now a small statement on measureability… we usually require something less than or greater than something else on some scale for it to be ‘measured’. We know that my thumb is longer than a centimeter, because when i put it next to a centimeter, it’s bigger. I know that I’m poorer than Bill Gates, because when we compare bank accounts, his is larger. Perhaps this a simplistic view of measurability but… in order for something to be measured, you need to compare it to something.

So perhaps when one sets a goal, there is some recognition that “I could improve here” or “I am not as good as I could be”. This motivation can help to keep us going… but also the progress towards our goal… “I just lost 10 pounds”… and therefore i keep it up.

My question(s) are about unmeasurable goals… does an unmeasurable goal mean anything? Should we set these goals? Can a goal be unmeasurable by one and measurable by another?

Lets say one sets personal goals of abstract ideas like “happiness” or “being content with self”. In some regard, this may be the same as admitting to yourself that you are unhappy, or not content with yourself… however… in my opinion it seems a daunting task to measure happiness. Lets try. Right now i’m a 6/10 on the happiness scale, but i want to be a 10/10. How will I know I’m at a 7/10? or a 9/10? oh wait now the scale changed, i’m a 95/100… oh wait now i’m a 987/1000… meaningless to me

Thinking about it in this way makes me think that unmeasurable goals should be avoided… because the ‘goal’ lacks any tangible progress… what has one accomplished? So I search for happiness for 5 years… does that make me more happy? or does that just make me more aware of how unhappy I am? In fact I’m thinking that unmeasurable goals should perhaps be avoided for reasons like this

Can unmeasurable goals serve a useful purpose? Examples? Are they truly unmeasurable?

Thoughts? Thanks

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I know I am taller than my brother without measuring. I can measure the amount of water in a cup without comparing it to an empty cup. In order to measure things, you have to quantify them. It’s an important detail.

You can certainly have qualitative goals. I could set myself the aim of improving the quality of my relationships, or getting better at chess, without setting metrics.

With qualitative goals, it is of course easier to fool yourself, and the advantage of quantitative goal-setting is that it removes woolly feel-good thinking, self-deception and so on. In addition, work appraisals have serious financial (and sometimes legal) repercussions, so SMART objectives are often demanded in order to make decisions legally defensible.

But there is a problem with quantifying everything… it was a big hit in the 90s with government policies in the US and UK, everything had to be measured, graphs plotted, no more handwavy politics but hard results with evidence. And it certainly had its positive side. What you find, though, is that once people are judged on measurables, they optimise their behaviour to those measurables.

If your problem is that you have $2000 too little for a project, you can start saving money and track your progress until you have enough. If your goal is to bench-press your bodyweight before Christmas, you can measure your presses and track your progress. These are quantitative problems.

A great many problems in one’s personal life, and in politics, are qualitative, though. Most of them, even. You’re not lacking a certain amount of something, say, but you are dissatisfied with such-and-such in general. If you feel you’re losing touch with your friends, you can qualitatively make the effort to get back in touch, plan things together, call up once in a while and so on, or you can quantatively write a list saying that you will send 5 emails and make three calls a week, go out to dinner twice a month, etc.

The latter is no use if you’re just going to end up sending emails that say nothing interesting, to make the quota. The problem is the quality of the relationship, not the quantity of the communication. In addition, focussing on the metrics distracts you from the general picture - say, you solve a medical waiting list problem, but at the cost that the medical workers are so overworked that they are leaving the profession or having breakdowns. Bounded problems get bounded solutions, and things outside the boundary can fall apart.

Measuring things is a good reality check; empiricism has its practical benefits. But measurements are like streetlights - if you’re using them to support you rather than for illumination, it’s time to sober up.

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Great post, O_H.

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Hmmm you do make some good points

Kudos to pointing out the flaws in measurable goals as well

Forgive me for making an unmeasurable goal sound like a measurable one… but how do i know what quality is? Or what acceptable quality is?

So lets say i’m losing touch with friends… what defines my qualitative effort to get back in touch and plan things as acceptable?

I’m thinking the answer is me. Perhaps for friend A i need to spend more time listening to what she says. Perhaps for friend B, i need to play wingman more than i make him do it. Perhaps for friend C i just need to hang out more often in general.

See what i’m doing? I’m breaking a problem down into smaller, more defined bits, and then implementing the solution.

Identify Problem → Break problem down if necessary → Identify solution → Execute solution

perhaps this approach does not make sense when the goal is qualitative in nature?

Anyone have a better approach?

Perhaps my behaviorist views are the culprit here… i intend to act with a result in mind, and reasonably expect that my action will result in the desired goal… it has appeared to work so far (better than anything else at least lol)

anyway getting back on point

perhaps my question is… where does it end if i can always do better???

so i’ve made very personalized efforts to get back in touch with friends. not only do i keep in a much better contact, but i call them on the phone all the time, we have very deep emotional connections cultured by years of companionship.

is this quality?

actually, i went out of my way to go this karate class with my friend matt cause he needed a friend to go with, even though i have no interest whatsoever. i’m doing this just for him. is this quality?

actually, turns out matt is now living in an psych ward for trying to off himself. he has no friends at all. i go see him every day, for several hours, because he has no one else. is this quality?

actually, turns out the time in the psych ward was just for pity. i’m actually there because we have similar interests

sorry, i’m drawing a box around the problem again… we can’t do that cause its unmeasurable

i just dont get it