The Dark Side of Measuring Everything

Reality is more complicated than numbers

The first book I ever fell in love with was Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield? Swoon. Now there was a protagonist after my heart: a swearing curmudgeon who just did his own thing. But the book has one fundamental flaw: it took J.D. Salinger 10 long years to write.

I keep returning to Cal Newport’s quote about the inherent benefits of working quickly, the way that Adam Grant does when he apparently locks himself in his office for days on end and lets his wife do…