2014-08-28
Explanation
The Joke
A woman sees a man in a large robotic exoskeleton suit labeled "Dr. Sexoskeleton" and asks "What the hell is that?" The man explains that with the suit, he can do push-ups four times as fast, push twelve times as hard, can lift two thousand kilograms of "erotically charged flesh," and other enhanced metrics. The woman points out that it sounds like he just selected easily measured metrics and increased them, rather than actually trying to make the experience good. He responds: "That's called progress, John."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the tendency in technology and business to optimize for easily quantifiable metrics rather than actual quality of experience. The "Dr. Sexoskeleton" is an absurd vehicle for this critique — the inventor has built an elaborate machine that improves measurable numbers (speed, force, weight capacity) without any consideration of whether those improvements actually make the experience better or more desirable.
This is a common critique of how organizations and technologists approach problems: they optimize what they can measure (clicks, speed, throughput) rather than what actually matters (satisfaction, quality, meaning). The comic applies this critique to the most intimate possible domain for maximum comedic contrast.
References
- Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." The comic illustrates this principle by showing someone optimizing measurable metrics that have no bearing on actual quality.
- McNamara Fallacy: The error of making decisions based solely on quantitative metrics while ignoring qualitative factors that cannot be easily measured.