by Douglas Hubbard | Dec 8, 2008 | How To Measure Anything Blogs, News
Again, by email and on this site, someone has asked how to measure value when the purpose of a project, policy, investment, etc. is to save a human life. One poster mentioned this in a thread he called Ominus Measurement Problem under the New Measurement Challenge forum. I explained in the reply that a method called Value of a Statistical Life is one method for doing that, that the VSL is mentioned in the book, and that I’ve actually used it to compute the benefits of IT systems that were meant to manage vital issues of public health (e.g. safe drinking water, etc.). I also addressed one problem this poster said he has run into about the putting a value on certain government programs. The poster pointed out one senior official who said You tell me how much a soldier’s life is worth, then I’ll believe in this measurement #^%&. In the reply I argue how the position of the official is far from the moral highground his apparent indignation would suggest he has.
by Douglas Hubbard | Dec 8, 2008 | How To Measure Anything Blogs, News
A couple of people have asked me questions about how you measure value when it is for a not-for-profit or government agency. At least one of them posted the question under the New Measurement Challenge section of this forum and some sent similar questions by email. I explained in the New Measurement Challenge in replay to a thread called the poster called Trending Measurements that economics is about the allocation of limited resources to meet various – usually competing – desires or needs. Whether a benefit is paid out to shareholders of a corporation as a dividend or if the benefit is for the greater public good, an ROI calculation can be done just the same. Just think of a dollar as a measure of value and don’t worry about whether an accountant would count it. See that thread for more detail.
by Douglas Hubbard | Dec 8, 2008 | Errata, How To Measure Anything Blogs, News
The errata and typos in the first print run that were mentioned in the first thread on this topic have all be addressed in the second print run. Fortunately, the book was selling well enough that the publisher had to go to a second print run much sooner than any of us planned. That allowed me to get those corrections in.
Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions for changes!
Doug Hubbard
by Douglas Hubbard | Dec 8, 2008 | Errata, How To Measure Anything Blogs, News
Although my publisher assures me that some errors always make it through the proofing process, each one is still frustrating to the author – mostly because the author had the chance at some point to catch almost every one of the errors.
My wife teaches math at a local community college and had taught math in a high-school for many years. She tells me that every text book she ever used had an errata sheet and that some had up to three pages of errata. In the proofing, we find scores – even hundreds – of errors, so it must be likely that some will get through. Can this likelihood be computed? If you read my book, you would say “Of course!” So I started thinking that if several people each find a number of errors over a period of time, I should be able to estimate the undiscovered errors.
One method I discuss in the book talks about methods for problems like this, including the catch, release & recatch approach for estimating fish populations. If two independent error-finding methods find some of the same errors but they each find errors the other did not find, then we can estimate the number that they both missed. I mention in the book that this same method can apply to estimating the number of people the Census missed counting or the number of unauthorized intrusions in your network that go undetected.
I had another method that I considered including in the book but, in the end, decided to leave out. This method is based on the idea that if you randomly search for errors in a book (or species of insects in the rain forest, or crimes in a neighborhood) the rate at which you find new instances will follow a pattern. Generally, finding unique instances will be easy at first but as the number
by Douglas Hubbard | Dec 8, 2008 | How To Measure Anything Blogs, News
Welcome to the consolidated forum for How to Measure Anything and The Failure of Risk Management. If you would like to make comments on either book, ask questions about examples, get philosophical about the nature of measurement and risk, or challenge us with an impossible measurement, then there is a discussion for you. If you have ideas for structure of the forums including new topics, then you will find a forum just for that. Here are a few introductory comments:
1) This is a moderated forum. I’m not too concerned about behavioral rules because I reserve the right not to post. But criticism or lack of agreement with me on any topic will NOT be considered as a factor in rejecting or keeping a post. I may reject a post if it is an identical question to one I responded to in another post.
2) I will try to approve posts ASAP and usually within a week. I apologize in advance if it ever takes longer.
Other than that, please contribute your thoughts on these topics and encourage friends and coworkers to do the same.
Thanks,
Douglas W. Hubbard
