202. The McNamara Fallacy
Channel: THUNK
Date: 2020-12-29

"I can't measure it, so it must not be important." And then: disaster.

(Also a disaster: I can't pronounce McNamara.)

- Links for the Curious-

According To U.S. Big Data, We Won The Vietnam War - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathansalembaskin/2014/07/25/according-to-big-data-we-won-the-vietnam-war/?sh=2967afe53f21

If We Can't Measure It, It Doesn't Exist - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/09/if-we-cant-measure-it-it-doesnt-exist/26988/ 

“How to Measure Anything” Review - https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybYBCK9D7MZCcdArB/how-to-measure-anything

Medicine and the McNamara fallacy (O’Mahony, 2017) - https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/jrcpe_47_3_omahony.pdf 

A historian explores the dark side of metric-based performance evaluation - https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2018/01/30/the-tyranny-of-metrics/ 

Why Scientific Studies Are So Often Wrong: The Streetlight Effect - https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/why-scientific-studies-are-so-often-wrong-the-streetlight-effect 

Bridging The Inferential Gap (Stewart et al, 2009)  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2670472/ 

Why We Still Use Our Heads Instead of Formulas: Toward an Integrative Approach - http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.467.874&rep=rep1&type=pdf 

Integrative literature reviews for the development of concepts (Broome, 2000) - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marion_Broome/publication/238248432_Integrative_literature_reviews_for_the_development_of_concepts/links/55ae580e08aed614b09a69bc/Integrative-literature-reviews-for-the-development-of-concepts.pdf

The integrative review: updated methodology (Knafl, 2005) - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x?casa_token=eS70cyLzXoQAAAAA:cRia4J7_Ujf-gNWrvAv_K_nJnVaZsY7BcS9CTog33sK53zNfGbg-7TZ2hKVhPj0l5XDi0gXviUObGw

Integrative Approaches to Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence (Dixon-Woods et al, 2005) - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Dixon-Woods/publication/249763686_Integrative_Approaches_to_Qualitative_and_Quantitative_Evidence/links/00b7d529d8a5793b1c000000/Integrative-Approaches-to-Qualitative-and-Quantitative-Evidence.pdf

Leeroy Jenkins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLyOj_QD4a4