[ENGINEERSCODEX]score: 0.15
Perverse Incentives: Token Usage as Misaligned Metric
May 14, 2026
Engineers Codex applies Goodhart's Law to AI token usage metrics, arguing that optimizing for token consumption incentivizes verbose, low-value outputs over actual productivity gains. A timely warning for engineering orgs building KPIs around AI adoption without grounding them in outcome-based measurement.