Climb to the Stars - Latest Comments in Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s important (Seth Godin)

Re: Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s important (Seth Godin)

Stephanie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:18:35 -0000

Hi Matt -- thanks for your comment. Of course the Twitter metrics case I talk about and the "race to audience" of the specific case Seth/Robert are talking about are not to be put exactly on the same plane. In the Twitter case, I think we very obviously have a fallacy -- a number which does not represent anything in reality. Numbers of readers are real, but underneath there is the same issue: we try to represent "worth" or "value" or "success" or "meaning" with a number, and there is very often a disconnect between that number and what we claim it reflects (just think of things like number of comments or number of readers to reflect how "good" a blog is).

So, this is me saying I agree with your comment. Which doesn't mean we mustn't put into perspective those 45 million views, like Robert and Seth invite us to.

Re: Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s important (Seth Godin)

Matt Balara — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:23:08 -0000

I loved your Twittermetrics video. You should consider doing video more often.

Although I like Seth and his quote too, in this case I'd tend towards agreeing with Oliver Reichenstein in his response to Scoble & Seth. An irritating 14 year old who can get 45 million views on YouTube isn't stats jiggery pokery of the kind you dismantle in Twittermetrics. Rather it's a stunningly massive participatory audience, and it's definitely interesting to think about how that happens. He and his army of fans are going to be running our internet, no matter how stupid and insignificant we think they are, long after we've given up the keyboard.

Re: Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s important (Seth Godin)

Tim — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:13:39 -0000

As Albert Einstein is supposed to have said:

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."