The Future is Boring...and More Exciting than Ever Before

An APA Dispatch

“Can we measure the output of human behavior in a way to capture the output of internal states? The research says yes, and now.”

—Dan Karlin, CMO, Mind Medicine.

I’m reporting from the APA. And I’m reporting… on measurement. It is a regular topic in my household.

“We can measure the coast of Denmark with an electron Microscope, and we will discover almost infinite detail about its length. We can measure with yard stick, and that is probably good enough.”

—I forget which speaker, honestly.

Measurement is the lifeblood of science. My advocacy— related from the academic presentations of my colleagues in “big measurement based care” —don’t skimp on the details. We don't yet have the elaborate tools for a psychiatric diagnosis that we imagined on Star Trek. I have been told they are coming. But we all have access to validated rating scales. They are not fancy tech. Like pagers and fax machines, they still can save lives. If we're going to be using measurement, however, and recording what we measured? Please, keep the nitty-gritty details recorded. I will illustrated with a photo of a toy: