Addictive Behaviour Leads to a False Measure of Productivity
MANY people honestly believe that they are being productive and actually advance in their life (making good use of time) by playing social control media games, such as "liking" many posts of so-called "friends" in exchange for them doing the same, naively giving a false impression of "popularity" and then wasting time checking who reciprocates and who does not. This is an example of addictive behaviour clouding people's otherwise-sober judgement. Eventually all those sites (or "platforms") go offline and nobody cares what perceived "popularity" they once projected.
Ruben Schade has just given another excellent example, calling it "a prime example of Goodhart’s Law". He wrote that "[p]ublic activity graphs are a prime example of Goodhart’s Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. When you prioritise the quantity and regularly of contributions over quality, you’ll have people contribute to make the colour of a square go darker. Throw hackerthon shirts into the mix, and you get spam that would make a generative AI blush..."
All this CG stuff (so-called "GAI") wastes a lot of computer power - akin to fake 'crypto' 'currency' - but that does not make it valuable and few people would pay to cover that expense. I myself found that many tasks don't require the computer at all and I've been doing fine without a "smart" "phone" for decades.
There's a tendency to believe that checking notifications on a "phone" (or even a desktop), for example, is a productive activity, instead of talking (face to face) to the people - or person - across the table from you.
Do not conflate number of clicks or tasks with productivity. Work wisely, not hard. Ensure the metrics to strive for actually make sense, rather than release endorphins.
A lot of "modern" technology targets endorphins instead of actual productivity. It's like a casino. █
