During British rule in India around the 18th century, the colonial government was concerned about venomous cobra snakes in India. The government decided to incentivize the citizens to kill the cobras in order to reduce its population by handing out rewards for every dead cobra. As time went by, however, individuals began breeding cobras for the purpose of killing them to collect the reward. When the government officials realized what was happening, they scrapped the reward program. Consequently, the cobra breeders, finding no further use for their now worthless snakes, released them into the wild, resulting in an even larger cobra population than before the rewards program started.

This cobra effect is a prime example of the Goodhart Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

A lot of things in life that we chase are the wrong targets, and that's how we wind up being unhappy.

GPA was designed to be a measurement, but it became the target for many in college. My classmates would take "gut classes" for the easy A to boost their GPA, giving up the opportunity to have a better education in other classes. Similarly in high school, the number of AP classes were maximized over the quality of education. Since that was what colleges cared about, high school students would do anything to increase their statistics. I often wished that I could just learn without consequences, that I don't have to give up the time to explore a topic for memorizing exam contents. There is just not enough time for everything, and if GPA is the measurement I was supposed to care about, it will always be prioritized over other things.

The summer of 2019 was the best summer of my life. I was in the Summer Science Program, which was a six-week residential program for students to conduct research. I did biochemistry research. There was so much to learn and I had nothing to worry about. The only job I had was to learn as much as I could. I soaked up knowledge from the lectures and played around with proteins, bacteria, and pipettes in the lab. There was no measurement whatsoever. I had so much fun and there were no grades to worry about.

I'm not suggesting that we eliminate measurements entirely, but rather that we ensure we're using the right ones. As time went on in college, I came to realize that GPA is the wrong target. What really mattered is what I know. The only thing I should compare myself to is who I was yesterday.

The biggest warning sign of Goodhart's Law is relying on a single measurement. Statistics always get more accurate with more variables. That's why people who think that having a certain level of wealth will make them happy often end up miserable. A good target always includes a set of thoughtful measurements.

Spend more time thinking about decisions that matter, about what to really focus on. There is nothing worse than running in the wrong direction. Failing to carefully consider the targets of your life risks waking up one day to the realization that all your efforts have been misdirected.