Jun

29

Stumbling On Subjectivity

June 29, 2006 |

  • Stumbling on Happiness
    Stumbling on Happiness

A couple of weeks ago, talking with Steve Borgatti at the CASOS Summer Institute at Carnegie Mellon, I raised some concerns about how well we are really measuring the phenomena that we describe with our imperfect “tools of measurement”. Steve suggested that my comment revealed a “postmodern” perspective and I will admit to that tendency.

Yesterday, however, while I was reading Daniel Gilbert’s insightful “Stumbling On Happiness” I stumbled upon a great response to the question of subjectivity in the measurement of human experiences. Gilbert addresses this concern by presenting three basic premises:

  • “The first premise is something that any carpenter could tell you: Imperfect tools are a real pain, but they sure beat pounding nails with your teeth.”
  • “The second premise is that of all the flawed measures of subjective experience we can take, the honest, real-time report of the attentive individual is the least flawed”
  • “The third premise is that imperfections in measurement are always a problem, but they are a devastating problem only when we don’t recognize them”

    • Thanks, I needed that.

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