I have spent my career in what I call mathematical fields - finance, accounting, investing, programming, etc. In these fields, there is always a tendency for those individuals to believe most issues have a mathematical solutions.
Unfortunately or fortunately, not everything is formula driven. There are many worthwhile projects that are very tough or impossible to quantify and have huge value. For example, a motivated workforce is very hard to quantify.
There have been many times in my career that I have pushed for projects that build qualitative benefits, but the “mathematics” of those projects were difficult to model financially. Does that mean the financial benefits will be small or negative? Absolutely not! It just means it is not easily quantifiable.
Sometimes those qualitative aspects are hard to develop and costly, but the outcomes can have far reaching effects. What is the value of good parenting? That would be very difficult to model, but we all know, innately, that there are huge benefits.
For these reasons, Einstein’s quote resonates with me!
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
- Albert Einstein hung this in his office at Princeton.
