It was a hot week. I caught some sort of stomach bug (more of a minor irritation than anything that knocked me down for the count). And I've just been trying to hold on. I wasn't really paying attention to, you know, everything.
Although, if a certain someone gets outside forces to take out Los Angeles, that's me. I'm not in Los Angeles proper, but a good nuclear blast would be close enough to take out my city. So, that attack was personal.
Anyway, I'm being lazy this week with a video I stumbled across. It talks about Goodhart's Law, which states, "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". In this video, at about 3:54, they say something very interesting about how they started measuring social media engagement, and discovered that outrage keeps people online longer. This explains a lot about our current online issues. Food for thought.
But I can't leave this post without some "resisting" content, so from Rachel Maddow, the word most picked by people to describe you-know-who is corrupt. Unsurprising, really.
I hear there are No Kings protests coming this weekend. Just a heads-up in case you hadn't heard (like I hadn't until just before writing this post).
Never heard of Goodhart’s Law, but it makes a lot of sense. The more time passes, the less I am interested in any SM besides blogging, where it’s still possible to curate your own experience. Hope you’re feeling better!
ReplyDeleteHope you are feeling better, Various stomach bugs are making the rounds where I live and I hope you are feeling better. I hadn't heard of Charles Goodhart or his law. I've read the story of the Soviet nail factory and the Cobra effect..Algorithms. Anger and fear are such strong emotions; social media has become totally toxic, and we've only begun to see the havoc machine intelligence will cause. The paper clip effect and your first video is one of the scariest things I've ever heard.
ReplyDeleteI think forewarned is forearmed here. It we're aware that it's a problem, we can counteract it.
DeleteI am so sorry you were ill, Liz. I hope you are feeling better, dear friend. I have never heard of Goodhart's Law, either, but I agree that it does make a lot of sense! The only social media I do is blogging.
ReplyDeleteI closed my Facebook account in April 2025 after decades, and it felt great! It was initially find and helpful for me in finding family members and doing my family tree, but it just began to get negative in people were complaining, gossiping, etc., and I realized that this was not what I signed up for and decided to get rid of it.
For myself, I find my blog therapeutic, it gives me an avenue to express myself and to communicate with people. I am not good at writing as some are, which is why I do my blog in the way I do, but I find it rewarding to be able to make others smile, laugh...and have a place to come to escape the chaos, even if just for a few moments.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Blogging is a nice social media, at least the way we do it ;)
DeleteI hadn’t heard of Goodhart’s Law before, but it really does explain why social media feels so messy now. Outrage everywhere, and it just keeps people glued to the screen. I’m glad blogging is still a space where we can share without all that noise. Take care and rest up from the stomach bug.
ReplyDeleteOutrage keeps people online! That's interesting. In a way online engagement is better than violent ones.
ReplyDeleteIt is, but in some cases it might incite people to do offline violence. Outrage can sometimes spill into the real world.
DeleteI need to look into Good Hart Law.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure this weekend's no Kings protests targeted at the 76ers by Nick fans who don't want LeBron in the East division
ReplyDeleteThe line about a measure becoming a target is easy to remember, I’ll probably start spotting it everywhere now. Thanks for sharing the video, Liz. Hope the stomach bug is gone by now.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling much better. I woke up Monday feeling hungry. It's like standardized school tests. When we teach to the test, the test scores become meaningless.
DeleteWe live in strange times. A nuclear blast would devastate miles and miles around the target site. I'm about 200+ miles from DC but a blast there would affect me. It's not something to joke about at all. I hope you're feeling better.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm about 30 miles from LA proper. Not far at all.
DeleteI’m just outside of NYC,clearly in a danger zone.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, isn’t it, how all the MAGA bots are silenced now that Ukraine took out the Russian data centers.
RE: "No Kings"
ReplyDeleteThe "No Kings movement" is --- like the "MAGA movement" or the "Black Lives Movement" and other phony grassroot "movements" --- a US regime-controlled operation to either control the opposition via such hope porn movements or divert them into establishment-safe outlets (such as gender/race wars) IN ORDER TO PREVENT A MASS REVOLUTION AGAINST the totally criminal ENTIRE US REGIME which is, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, run by PSYCHOPATHIC KINGS (not just Trump)!
The bogus 'no kings' movement wants you to think once Trump is gone everything's alright AS IF IT'S ONLY A TRUMP ISSUE. It's the same child-like mentality and stupidity of millions of people who "think" and hang on to the fake hope or fantasy that once their democrat/republican candidate is in office things will be fundamentally better again!
ANY criminal beta psychopath who has ALWAYS ended up and ends up in high office is merely always a lower-ranked willfully participating puppet or agent serving the true pack of alpha psychopaths behind the scenes. Removing the public-facing immoral criminals has never solved anything vital at all, and never will.
By FAR the most vital urgent and DEEP understanding everyone needs to gain is that a mafia network of manipulating PSYCHOPATHS (psychopathic KINGS) is, and always has been, governing big businesses and institutions (eg official medicine, big academia, big tech, big banks, big religions), governments and the world -- the evidence is very solid in front of everyone's "awake" nose: see “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room”... https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
"We’ll sit on the edge of our seats watching made-up tales about psychopathic killers while psychopathic killers rule the world." --- Caitlin Johnstone, Independent Journalist
"America is the greatest exporter of violence the world has ever known. So wear your patriotism on your sleeve and be proud. You are a depraved citizen of the world’s worst killer nation." --- Paul Craig Roberts, Ph.D., American economist & former US empire official, in 2015 [https://archive.ph/liVj5]
"“No Kings” isn’t anti-war, it’s just anti-Trump." --- Unknown
Yet...
"I've come to realize that the biggest problem anywhere in the world is that people's perceptions of reality are compulsively filtered through the screening mesh of WHAT THEY WANT, AND DO NOT WANT, TO BE TRUE." --- Travis Walton, Author
And psychopaths are typically NOT how Hollywood propaganda movies (or the Wikipedia/WebMD propaganda outlets) have showcased them. And therefore one better RE-learns what a psychopath REALLY is. One'll then know why they exploit/harm everyone, why they want to control everyone and have been creating a new world order/global dictatorship, and many other formerly puzzling things will become very clear.
"Ignorance is the root cause of all Evil. Since only Knowledge eradicates ignorance, it is our duty and moral obligation to educate ourselves, as well as the masses around us." --- Anonymous
Speaking of ignorance is evil, how can the masses get out of this whole mess (and create justice, freedom and peace for all)? First, EVERYONE needs to learn, and teach others, what TRUE morality is ---99% of people don't know what it is because (1) it's NOT taught in the official indoctrination system, better know as the "education system," and (2) it's NOT the same as religious morality: https://odysee.com/@woeih:e/Mark-Passio-Government-Is-Slavery:a & https://odysee.com/@woeih:e/Mark-Passio-Interviewed-By-Shaun-Atwood-2026-06-18:6
Because if you don't know what TRUE morality is you will not stop doing, unwittingly or wittingly, evil things...
"The solution is NOT to create something new (eg, new systems of organization, new technologies, etc). The solution is to STOP being complicit with evil. To STOP doing things that are not moral for a reward. To STOP being complicit with anything the control system tells us we must do." --- Mark Passio, Spiritual Teacher, in 2023
When I lived in CA it was very very close to the Concord Naval Weapons Station (undergoing changes now). I felt like in War Games, where the man lived where he'd be sure to die in a nuclear blast, because it was better than surviving.
ReplyDeleteMy children were home schooled in a district program where at first we had the freedom to teach how we wanted (and were best for individual kids). So, when it was testing time we opted out, because we didn't "teach to the test." Many parents have no idea they can opt their kids out.