Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined
When trivial metrics become the target, the trivial becomes the strategy.
"We measured what was easy. So we did what was easy."
What is Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined? When trivial metrics become the target, the trivial becomes the strategy. Operating system slowly optimized for ease of measurement, not value.
Engagement metrics tracked because they were measurable; outcomes ignored because they weren't.
Operating system slowly optimized for ease of measurement, not value.
AI evaluation built on the metrics that were already in the dashboard.
Build the metric for the outcome, not the outcome for the metric.
Drag yourself across Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined.
Real scene: Engagement metrics tracked because they were measurable; outcomes ignored because they weren't. The pull below is the same one law of triviality + goodhart combined exerts on the call. Find the position where you stop being able to defend yourself with logic.
In the room: Operating system slowly optimized for ease of measurement, not value.
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The full taxonomy entry
Every concept in the Atlas uses the same structure — so Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined can be compared, recombined, and cited like an element on a periodic table.
- Business
- Leadership
- Government
- Healthcare
- Education
- Sales
- Marketing
- AI
- Negotiation
- Media
- Public Policy
- Relationships
- Where in our org would Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined most often show up unnoticed?
- Which metric, ritual, or contract clause quietly rewards Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined?
- If we removed every payoff for Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined, what behavior would replace it?
- Who benefits when Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined persists — and who pays the cost?
- People defend the status quo using the language of law of triviality + goodhart combined.
- Decisions cluster around the easiest narrative rather than the strongest evidence.
- New data changes the slide deck but not the decision.
- Anyone naming the pattern is treated as the problem.
Every Atlas entry is a node in a knowledge graph. See the related rail below to follow the connections.
See Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined through 3 lenses
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Which best describes Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined?
Worked example, counter-example & concept map
On-demand AI analysis grounded in the Lab's research. Cached on your device after first run.
When you encounter Law of Triviality + Goodhart Combined, your prefrontal cortex has to do extra work to override the automatic response — and that override budget is finite.
Executive control, planning, impulse override, working memory, System 2. First thing to go offline under stress, fatigue, or low blood sugar. Why your 4pm decisions are worse than your 9am ones.
See Prefrontal in the Brain Atlas →Picked for you, from the Atlas
Ranked by shared learning paths, overlapping chips, and what you've saved.
Doing something feels safer than doing nothing — even when nothing wins.
Feelings act as shortcuts for facts.
Over-reliance on the first number that hits the table.
Adding a clearly worse option steers people toward the option you wanted.
Whatever is pre-selected wins more often than it should.
We value things more once they're ours.
Send the card, not just the link
A pre-rendered social card with the title, eyebrow, and URL. Copy the link, post it anywhere, or download the SVG for slides.
More definitions to follow
Every term in the Atlas connects to a dozen others. Pick any of these and see where it takes you.
Subsidies favoring incumbent technologies distort capital allocation away from emerging options.
A handful of providers shape the entire AI economy.
Pre-committing the exact when, where, and how of a behavior — 'if X, then Y.'
Models are simplifications — never the thing itself.
A model that explains historical data too closely will fail on new data.
Responding in kind — favors for favors, harms for harms.
Robert Dilts's 14 conversational reframing patterns for shifting limiting beliefs in real time.
Start cooperative; copy your counterpart's last move thereafter.
Someone who incites others to take illegal or rash action, often to expose or discredit them.
We accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Know the perimeter of what you actually know.
The gap between early adopters and the early majority kills most products.