Source · last reconsidered September 17, 2026

Goodhart Taxonomy

A short post that sorts the ways a proxyproxySomething easy to measure that we use in place of what we actually care about — a test score in place of learning, likes in place of quality. measure fails under optimizationoptimizationAdjusting something to improve one chosen measure — speed, cost, clicks — often at the expense of what the measure leaves out. into four kinds.

Garrabrant, Scott. "Goodhart Taxonomy." LessWrong, December 30, 2017.

Article · LessWrong · 2017 · Accessed September 17, 2026

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EbFABnst8LsidYs5Y/goodhart-taxonomy

Interpretation

Garrabrant quotes Goodhart's original statistical wording, not Strathern's; the four types are his own.

Provenance

is the origin of

related to