Signal, Ledger, Loop

How to Measure a Mind Without Lying to It

In January 2016, the company behind the most popular brain-training program on earth paid two million dollars to settle charges over claims its own dashboards appeared to prove. Tens of millions of users. Scores visibly, undeniably rising. Almost none of it meaning what anyone in the building believed it meant, and nobody in the building was lying.

This book is about how that happens, and about what it actually takes to attach an honest number to a mind: a user’s, a patient’s, an employee’s, and then, because the tools will not stop where it is comfortable, your own.

“You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” (Feynman)

Begin with the fine

For the user, who read it first.