Measuring weapons held substitutes for the unmeasurable outcomes of using them

Evidence

It is much easier to measure the “inputs”—what weapons each side has—even though the relationship between these and the outputs is tenuous. So, just as the drunk looks under the lamppost, so it is that analysts use inputs to judge military balance. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2593

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Goodhart’s law and the general measurable-proxy-substitutes-for-true-target theme.