What this means for 'Better Metrics'
YES ... the global SOCIO-ENVIRO-ECONOMIC system is VERY complex and interconnected in all sorts of ways that are essentially incomprehensible, and the mathematics of complex systems confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that mere mortals will never be able to come up with the correct solution, even if a correct solution actually exists.
SO complex solutions cannot be MANAGED to get to a perfect solution, but they certainly can be managed simply to be BETTER.
In all my adult life ... going on 60 years ... there have been a huge number of improvements to this socio-enviro-economic system, and a good few failures. The process has been one of trial and error, or better said, error and retry.
Better management can result in an improvement in this PROCESS ... the process of try, error and retry.
Mathematics of complexity
The video below is thought provoking ... and like the graphics of Sarah Catherine Firth ... suggest that it might well be a waste of time to understand the complexity and to manage better.
But it also confirms that while mathematics has a critical role to play in some aspects of science, it is something that operates in the backgroud, and does not have to be the driver ...or constraint ... of initiatives that have the goal simply to have better metrics that help to improve performance towards better progress/
Activites in the real world are very, very complex and utterly random.
The best way to manage progress in the reality of extreme complexity is to measure change in state!