I’d written previously about Goodhart’s Law, which goes along the lines of, once a metric becomes a goal it ceases to be a good measure.  Now, I choose the words “metric”, “goal”, and “measure” all deliberately because they mean slightly different things (even if their subject is the same).  A measure is the most generic of the three as it simply represents something that is, well, measured.  It could be any number of things that you pay attention to or not; something reported or not; something you strive to increase/decrease/stabilize.  A metric is a little more specific for this purpose as it’s actually something you are monitoring or at least paying closer attention to.  Metrics are a subset of measures.  Finally, goals may not even be observed but rather aspirational, and often change if they’ve either been met or otherwise deemed unattainable or unnecessary.  If you deal with numbers—or of any sort of business at all—you’re constantly bombarded by measures, metrics, and goals.
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