Getting the Metric
Pituophis
Posts: 1,025
Semi serious question;
I was reading an article on getting the most out of your turbo sessions this morning, and came across these lines;
"Record heart rate for cross-referencing, but don't use it as a training metric. Power and speed are the anchored metrics."
"Now you have a metric for your six, twenty and sixty minute efforts, you can".... etc.
Now I realise that the use of the word "metric" here has obviously become trendy, and will no doubt be part of the normal cycling vocabulary, but surely it doesn't make sense? Does it?
Isn't "metric" just a form of standardised measuring criteria;
"the decimal measuring system based on the metre, litre, and gram as units of length, capacity, and weight or mass. The system was first proposed by the French astronomer and mathematician Gabriel Mouton (1618–94) in 1670 and was standardized in Republican France in the 1790s."
Is it just text talk?
Maybe I'm older than I thought.
I was reading an article on getting the most out of your turbo sessions this morning, and came across these lines;
"Record heart rate for cross-referencing, but don't use it as a training metric. Power and speed are the anchored metrics."
"Now you have a metric for your six, twenty and sixty minute efforts, you can".... etc.
Now I realise that the use of the word "metric" here has obviously become trendy, and will no doubt be part of the normal cycling vocabulary, but surely it doesn't make sense? Does it?
Isn't "metric" just a form of standardised measuring criteria;
"the decimal measuring system based on the metre, litre, and gram as units of length, capacity, and weight or mass. The system was first proposed by the French astronomer and mathematician Gabriel Mouton (1618–94) in 1670 and was standardized in Republican France in the 1790s."
Is it just text talk?
Maybe I'm older than I thought.
0
Comments
-
A metric is just a (normally) quantitative measure.0
-
Like many words, it has multiple meanings. A metric can indeed be any variable which can change over time. So speed in miles per hour is itself a metric
0 -
If you look at synonyms of the word, you can sort of see where it's come from, but it's overuse in the sentences you quoted is questionable.
"Record heart rate for cross-referencing, but don't use it as a training metric {absolute]. Power and speed are the anchored metrics [factors]."
One that often grates with me is 'methodology', as in "I have to sort out the methodology for my experiment"
When asked what they mean by methodology, the answer is usually along the lines of "well, it's the way I'm going to be doing xyx isn't it?".
"So, you mean the method then?" :roll:
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
Metrology is the science of measurement and a metric is a parameter or unit of measurement. The "metric system" is also used to refer to the international standard of measurement based on metres and kilograms.
"metric" is a very commonly used term in business these days. It's normally used in the context of measurable variables considered important to the business and used as performance goals such as units sold, transactions per hour, % yield, productivity, manufacturing cost per unit product, profit, accident rate, attendance, etc, etc....
This is based on the philosophy that "what gets measured gets improved". A "metric" is usually the term applied to the thing measured and reported.0 -
I am older than I though, and further out of touch. :oops:
Thanks for the replies.0 -
Resolutely avoirdupois here...0
-
-
It was a joke. :roll: Clear?0
-
speaking of which, my wife works in a technical job and had some white paper home for review, on the title was the use of the verb 'architecting' rather than using a word like designing.0
-
Business vocabulary is largely nonsense. People talk crap (sometimes by accident and sometimes because they're just spoofing) and then other people copy them until it becomes common parlance. Often it's overuse of a clumsy term where there's a perfectly suitable simpler option (e.g. "leverage" is often substituted where "use" would be just as appropriate) and sometimes it's just made-up or mis-used words that become standard jargon. I like to use normal language just to mess with people's heads. They get confused when you say "in future" and pass up an opportunity to say "going forward".kieranb wrote:speaking of which, my wife works in a technical job and had some white paper home for review, on the title was the use of the verb 'architecting' rather than using a word like designing.
My personal favorite in a former company was the frequency with which people used to asked me to add "verbiage" to technical and quality documents. The idea being that more was better and more descriptive language would make my points seem more substantial and give readers more confidence.
I don't think they realised that what they were asking for was an excessively wordy and badly written document:
Various dictionary definitions of "verbiage":
- An excess of words for the purpose; wordiness.
- speech or writing that contains too many words or that uses words that are more difficult than necessary
- overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing or speech; wordiness; verbosity
- excessively lengthy or technical speech or writing:0
