Goodhart’s Law

Goodhart’s Law states that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Named after British economist Charles Goodhart, the principle highlights how individuals and organizations optimize for specific metrics at the expense of the underlying goal, leading to system gaming and unintended consequences. It is a fundamental concept in economics and management for understanding the limitations of quantitative performance indicators and the risks of misaligned incentives.

economics management metrics incentives systems-thinking behavioral-science strategy

Antithesis: skin-in-the-game See Also: campbells-law, lucas-critique, cobra-effect, mcnamara-fallacy version-01