I think we/humans have concluded that numbers/metrics are more real for being measurable, and that anything immeasurable doesn’t have value. If that is not crazy, I don’t know what is.
Ah, I suspect its all the 'management by measuring' gurus who started the whole attitude ... "what gets measured gets done" (Tom Peters). I like beauty, nuance, lyricism, the immeasurable joy of a well-crafted sentence. Try measuring kindness, generosity and encouragement. Yep, I'm in the corner fighting (quietly) for the subjective.
This is the second letter today I’ve read concerning numbers... I’ll try to find the first for you later.
I am not a numbers girl for thé simply reason I know how easily I can become completely obsessed, numbers are best ignored with the exception of my health app of course... talking of which my step count are not up in to its average yet today... I feel a walk coming on....
JoJo likes the numbers ... she bought herself a Garmin watch and it monitors steps and heart rate and sleep patterns and she's happy to be getting the info. I also tend towards the obsessive ... with our non-Substack newsletter, I used to watch the growth and the open rates like I could somehow influence it! Daft. So now I try very hard not to obsess, just peek every now and again. On 'Just Write, Right' I am on the cusp of 222 and those numbers please me most!
We humans do like to measure everything don't we? And yet, it is the small things that matter, that can't be measured. I suppose, what the numbers can sometimes reveal is that we've shown up. So, you've shown up 349 times with your newsletter, and that is something worth celebrating 🌟
I love that the first 43 folk who signed up - in the secret garden of our deli for the chance to win a bottle of wine - and who have seen it morph from "JoJo is making gingerbread on Thursday" to a wide-ranging curation of architecture, photography, adventure, travel, design, art, writing etc, they're still there, still engaging. It has a sense of community it is impossible to count!
Not rambling at all, Jo ... thank you so much for commenting. AND, utterly brilliant. 742 days now and I can absolutely see what 750 will mean. I think when I wrote our 'Manifesto' (gosh, doesn't that sound a bit pretentious having a manifesto), I was seeking out values that meant something to us. 'Value, not price' is a reminder to us to put as much (if not more) emphasis on the feelings, the emotions, the sense of achievement as we do on the tally. But, I completely get the need to count as well ... Mr F is a tallier of things - temperature in her cold tub, kilometres run or pedalled (she'll run past the house to get a round number). And if we stumble on 999 subscribers for this wee space you can be sure I'll be celebrating the number. So proud of you for your ongoing achievement.
I think we/humans have concluded that numbers/metrics are more real for being measurable, and that anything immeasurable doesn’t have value. If that is not crazy, I don’t know what is.
Ah, I suspect its all the 'management by measuring' gurus who started the whole attitude ... "what gets measured gets done" (Tom Peters). I like beauty, nuance, lyricism, the immeasurable joy of a well-crafted sentence. Try measuring kindness, generosity and encouragement. Yep, I'm in the corner fighting (quietly) for the subjective.
This is the second letter today I’ve read concerning numbers... I’ll try to find the first for you later.
I am not a numbers girl for thé simply reason I know how easily I can become completely obsessed, numbers are best ignored with the exception of my health app of course... talking of which my step count are not up in to its average yet today... I feel a walk coming on....
JoJo likes the numbers ... she bought herself a Garmin watch and it monitors steps and heart rate and sleep patterns and she's happy to be getting the info. I also tend towards the obsessive ... with our non-Substack newsletter, I used to watch the growth and the open rates like I could somehow influence it! Daft. So now I try very hard not to obsess, just peek every now and again. On 'Just Write, Right' I am on the cusp of 222 and those numbers please me most!
We humans do like to measure everything don't we? And yet, it is the small things that matter, that can't be measured. I suppose, what the numbers can sometimes reveal is that we've shown up. So, you've shown up 349 times with your newsletter, and that is something worth celebrating 🌟
I love that the first 43 folk who signed up - in the secret garden of our deli for the chance to win a bottle of wine - and who have seen it morph from "JoJo is making gingerbread on Thursday" to a wide-ranging curation of architecture, photography, adventure, travel, design, art, writing etc, they're still there, still engaging. It has a sense of community it is impossible to count!
Not rambling at all, Jo ... thank you so much for commenting. AND, utterly brilliant. 742 days now and I can absolutely see what 750 will mean. I think when I wrote our 'Manifesto' (gosh, doesn't that sound a bit pretentious having a manifesto), I was seeking out values that meant something to us. 'Value, not price' is a reminder to us to put as much (if not more) emphasis on the feelings, the emotions, the sense of achievement as we do on the tally. But, I completely get the need to count as well ... Mr F is a tallier of things - temperature in her cold tub, kilometres run or pedalled (she'll run past the house to get a round number). And if we stumble on 999 subscribers for this wee space you can be sure I'll be celebrating the number. So proud of you for your ongoing achievement.