Seeking Coastal Utopia

A proxy is a representative value or measure (figure) that can be used as part of a calculation. You see the use of proxy calculations in economics and social science studies. The S&P 500 Index, DOW and NASDAQ are all giant forms of proxy calculation. You need to use it in your efforts to change behavior. stock market chart from Chris Liverani on  Unsplash You use a proxy when you are unable to directly measure a particular action or activity. We normally see the use of a proxy when calculating the quality of life or defining a measurement for the standard of living. For instance, you wish to measure a feeling, such as happiness or anger, of a group of people and the possible cause of that emotion. You can indirectly associate whether or not they had coffee on the day they reported their specific emotions via the use of a simple binary response counted, 1 for yes, 0 for no, and tally the results. Depending on the number of people that reported getting coffee you could rel...

Measure twice cut once. How much money do you have in your bank account? How much gas is in your car? How fast are you going? How many miles before the next stop? “assorted tape measures” by patricia serna on  Unsplash Measures. Metrics. Score. These are needed to succeed. This is the biggest failure of many businesses. Start-ups and mature businesses alike. It affects teams, groups, and individuals. It is a path to failure if you choose to not measure anything that will change behavior. Successful businesses have Key Performance Indicators — KPI’s that are used to identify important metrics or measurements that are necessary for their business success — or survival if they only just started actively measuring. You need to measure your efforts. “baseball field” by Chris Chow on  Unsplash I played a lot of baseball while growing up. That is a statistician’s sport. Everything is measured. Runs, hits, errors, balls, strikes, on-base percentages, assists, puto...