05/03/2026
Our local elementary school scores below average on the GreatSchools rating that shows up on every Zillow listing. We sent our son there anyway, and what we found was a school that the number couldn't begin to capture.
That mismatch sent me down a rabbit hole on the role metrics play in our lives, and in financial planning specifically. New piece this morning on the numbers worth watching, the ones that quietly start running the show, and how to tell the difference.
I've been thinking about the role that metrics play in life, prompted by a recent Derek Thompson interview with the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, whose new book is called The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game . Nguyen has a useful term for what happens when a simplified measure quietly t
