Reading Books and Chasing Metrics

Learning to use metrics, not chase them

Another year in the books! Naturally, I wrapped up 2024 by looking back at my reading log; 15 books completed felt like a good achievement. But when I compared it to 2023's total of 16 books, I felt a bit disappointed. "Really, fewer books? After I made such an effort?" I quickly caught myself, however, as I recognized the superficiality of that comparison. Who's to say that 2024 wouldn't look better by examining a different metric? Better yet, who cares about the metric values at all? I felt satisfied with the amount of reading I had done over the year—shouldn't that be all that matters?

At my very first internship back at E&J Gallo Winery, my engineering manager had a saying that's stuck with me since: "We don't chase metrics." As someone with a silly predilection for collecting data in his life, this wisdom keeps me grounded. Yes, metrics provide useful signals, but they can always be gamed, and this gamification detracts from the true underlying goal.

In the past, I would log much more than just the basic details of the books I read (i.e., book title, start date, end date). I looked at page count, calculated word counts, and even dabbled with recording time spent reading. I hit an inflection point early last year when I stepped back and reflected on how tracking these metrics was influencing my behavior. I noticed that I was fixating more and more on the numbers, with adverse effects. Less active reading, less critical thinking, less of the deep engagement that metrics could never capture. I was sacrificing my own learning for paper gains. And what for? Did I own the metrics or did the metrics own me? I scaled back heavily on the book metric tracking, leaving me with the bare-bones logging system I currently have.

Nowadays, I occasionally entertain the idea of slowly reincorporating these metrics into my reading log. Yes, the metrics should not be the north star itself, but they can still serve as informative proxies for the north star. Ideally, metrics are a forcing function for self-reflection; observing that a metric is down leads to contemplation on potential causes. Maybe it's symptomatic of a real underlying issue! Maybe not. The importance is that I remain in control and focused on what truly matters. Observing the drop in books read between 2023 and 2024 served exactly this purpose: it made me realize that I'd tackled longer, more challenging works. And because of this reflection, in the end, I felt that much prouder about my reading progress.