People are bad at setting out goals. We often take measures to achieve the said goal, so we optimise the measure. Sounds flawless right? Wrong, we become fixed to achieve the measures (which can be manipulated), regardless of consequence.
The Cobra Effect:
During the British Colonial India era, wild cobras were a problem in the streets of Delhi.
To curb the venomous pests, the British implemented a policy to reward people for killing cobras.
The policy was running well, many dead cobras were turned in and hunters were rewarded.
However, this became a business opportunity for ‘savvy civilians’. They started cobra farming.
Cobras were bred to be killed for the bounty rewards.
The British were annoyed that the system was abused and scrapped the policy entirely.
The breeders now had a bunch of worthless cobras, so they released them into the streets.
Delhi ended up with more cobras than before the policy started. The policy backfired.
The Covid-19 Effect:
Malaysia is hit hard with the ongoing pandemic. Businesses cannot reopen.
Malaysia goes into lockdown and the PM introduces a 4-phase exit plan to reopen business sectors.
The measure is that when daily case numbers dip below 4000, we go into Phase 2 (targeted for early July) with relaxed restrictions.
However, daily case numbers now are still way above 4000.
How do we go into phase 2 with high case numbers? Reduce testing of course! Then, less cases will be reported and we can go into Phase 2.
See how measures can be manipulated? When the measure becomes a target, it loses its value as a measure. I truly hope that our leaders are not short-sighted in caring more about optics than the actual problem. I don’t want to see cobras released onto our streets.
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