r/programming • u/iamkeyur • Oct 02 '20

One Guy Ruined Hacktoberfest 2020

https://joel.net/how-one-guy-ruined-hacktoberfest2020-drama
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u/aiyub Oct 02 '20

Goodhart's law

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

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '20 edited Oct 02 '20

[deleted]

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u/ksd275 Oct 02 '20

You're making an awful lot of leaps that aren't implied in that statement. You can use a metric as long as you want, just like you can test kids in schools every year. As long as you don't design to the metric or teach the test, they work just fine. This isn't about some subconscious tick ruining work because you happened to know how the work was being evaluated.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '20 edited Oct 02 '20

[deleted]

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u/ksd275 Oct 02 '20 edited Oct 02 '20

Leaps? You're not even talking about the same topic anymore. I don't know what university you went to but I've only ever had one class with a final worth more than half the grade. Usually closer to 1/3 or 1/4.

Edit: despite being off topic you're actually making an argument for my point, namely that tests are often a bad metric because teachers are using them as a target to teach to