Ben Williams
Only Track What Matters
Inspired by Ben Williams episode
Ben Williams distinguishes data collection from decision science. Tracking everything vs. tracking what matters. Same with parenting apps that log every millisecond.
Ben Williams watched teams build beautiful dashboards tracking everything. When decision time came? Pure gut feel. Data collection vs decision science.
You have three apps tracking your baby's sleep. You log every nap to the minute. You've created a spreadsheet with wake windows color-coded by success rate. You know exactly how many ounces they ate at 3:47pm on Tuesday. You could publish a research paper on their bowel movements.
It's 2am. The baby is screaming. Are you consulting the dashboard? No. You're standing in the dark holding them and singing the Costco jingle. Then you log "2:14am - woke up, settled after 12 minutes" so the app doesn't give you a sad face emoji.
Decision science asks: what decision are we trying to make? What would actually change? If the answer is "nothing, I'm just documenting my failures," delete the app.
The baby doesn't care about your color-coded spreadsheet. The baby wants the Costco jingle at 2am.
