One way to think about why Goodhart's law happens is because before incentivizing, you had an (implicit) causal model for why the metric drove the outcome.

· Bits and Bobs 7/14/25
  • One way to think about why Goodhart's law happens is because before incentivizing, you had an (implicit) causal model for why the metric drove the outcome.
    • But by incentivizing it you modify the dynamics and break the causal model.
    • Since the causal model is implied, you don't even think about what you're doing as you smash it to smithereens.