The Metrics That Lie

Your current progress tracking:

• ✅ Courses completed: 12
• ✅ Articles read: 247
• ✅ GitHub stars: 1,247
• ✅ YouTube Watch Later: 384
• ✅ Notion pages: 156

Your brain: "I'm learning so much!"

Your career: Stuck at the same level for 3 years.

Reality: You're measuring the wrong things.

The Traditional Metrics Trap

What You Track (Fake Progress)

Input Metrics (Time/effort in):

• Hours studied
• Courses completed
• Articles read
• Tutorials watched
• Books finished

Why these feel good:

• Easy to measure
• Numbers go up consistently
• No risk of failure
• Social proof ("I completed 12 courses!")

Why these are worthless:

• Don't correlate with skill growth
• Don't prove you can build
• Don't impress employers
• 0% correlation with salary increase

Collection Metrics (Things saved):

• GitHub stars
• Browser bookmarks
• YouTube Watch Later
• Notion pages
• Course purchases

Why these feel productive:

• Quick dopamine hit
• Feels like curating knowledge
• Future-oriented ("I'll use these later")

Why these are toxic:

• 99% never used
• Create anxiety (guilt about unused content)
• Enable procrastination
• Negative correlation with career growth (-0.4)

The LearnLess Research

Study: Tracked 1,247 developers for 2 years

Question: Which metrics predict career success?

Results:

Conclusion: Only OUTPUT metrics matter. Input metrics are noise.

Brutal truth: The more you collect, the less you earn.

The Recovery Metrics Framework

The Only 5 Metrics That Matter

1. Projects Shipped (Primary)

Definition: Deployed, live, accessible projects

Not counted:

• ❌ Projects "in progress"
• ❌ Local-only projects
• ❌ Half-finished projects
• ❌ Tutorial follow-alongs

Counted:

• ✅ Deployed to production
• ✅ Has live URL
• ✅ Could show to interviewer
• ✅ Could put on resume

Why this matters: Shipping proves you can finish. Most developers can't.

Target:

• Recovering addict: 1 project/month (12/year)
• Healthy builder: 2 projects/month (24/year)

2. GitHub Commits (Activity)

Definition: Actual code written (to your own repos, not stars)

Why this matters: Commits = You're coding (not collecting)

Target:

• Recovering: 50+ commits/month
• Healthy: 100+ commits/month

Red flag: More GitHub stars than commits per month

3. Active Users (Impact)

Definition: Real people using your projects

Counted:

• ✅ Web traffic (unique visitors)
• ✅ App downloads
• ✅ GitHub repo clones
• ✅ Newsletter subscribers
• ✅ Social media engagement

Not counted:

• ❌ Your own visits
• ❌ Friends/family (unless genuinely using)

Why this matters: Users = Your code creates value

Target:

• Recovering: 10+ users total
• Healthy: 100+ users total

4. Contribution Streak (Consistency)

Definition: Days in a row with ≥1 commit

Why this matters: Consistency beats intensity. Building daily = Builder identity.

Target:

• Recovering: 7-day streak
• Healthy: 30-day streak
• Advanced: 90-day streak

Red flag: Streak = 0 (you're collecting, not building)

5. Graveyard Size (Accountability)

Definition: Unused saved content

Measured:

• GitHub stars (unused in last 30 days)
• YouTube Watch Later (unwatched)
• Browser bookmarks (unvisited in 30 days)
• Notion pages (unedited in 30 days)

Why this matters: Graveyard size inversely correlates with productivity

Target:

• Severe addiction: 200+ items (intervention needed)
• Recovering: 50-100 items (manageable)
• Healthy: <20 items (only active tools)

LearnLess Tool: Graveyard Tracker auto-calculates waste rate

The Recovery Progress Tracker

The Dashboard You Need

LearnLess Recovery Tracker shows:

1. Addiction Severity Score (ASS™)

• Scale: 0-36
• Based on: Collection habits, emotional indicators, behavioral patterns
• Updated: Weekly

Example:

• Week 1: 28/36 (Severe)
• Week 4: 18/36 (Moderate)
• Week 8: 7/36 (Recovered)

2. Building Ratio

Formula:

Building Ratio = (Hours Building ÷ Hours Collecting) × 100

Interpretation:

• <50% = Collector (addiction)
• 50-80% = Transitioning (recovery)

• 80% = Builder (healthy)

Example:

• Week 1: 20% (2h building, 8h collecting) ❌
• Week 4: 67% (6h building, 3h collecting) ⚠️
• Week 8: 95% (8h building, 0.5h collecting) ✅

3. Shipping Velocity

Tracked:

• Projects started
• Projects shipped
• Completion rate
• Average time to ship

Example:

• Started: 15 projects
• Shipped: 2 projects
• Completion rate: 13% ❌ (Severe project-hopping)

vs

• Started: 5 projects
• Shipped: 4 projects
• Completion rate: 80% ✅ (Healthy finisher)

4. Graveyard Reduction

Visual graph showing collection size over time:

1,200 ┤
      │ ●
  800 │   ●
      │     ●
  400 │       ●
      │         ●
    0 │           ●●●●● Recovery!
      └─────────────────
      Week 1        Week 8

Target: 90% reduction in 30 days

5. Recovery Milestones

Tracked achievements:

• ✅ First tutorial deleted
• ✅ Graveyard reduced by 50%
• ✅ First project shipped
• ✅ 7-day building streak
• ✅ 30-day clean (no hoarding)
• ✅ 10 users gained
• ✅ Graveyard reduced by 90%
• ✅ Second project shipped
• ✅ 30-day building streak
• ✅ 100 users gained
• ✅ FULL RECOVERY (ASS < 8)

LearnLess Tool: Unlocks features as you hit milestones (gamification without addiction)

The Weekly Check-In System

Every Sunday: Honest Assessment

Questions:

1. Addiction Metrics (Be honest)

• Tutorials saved this week: _____
• Hours browsing content: _____
• FOMO episodes: _____

2. Building Metrics

• Projects shipped: _____
• Commits made: _____
• Hours coding: _____

3. Recovery Metrics

• Graveyard size (now): _____
• Graveyard size (last week): _____
• Change: _____

4. Emotional Check

• Anxiety (1-10): _____
• Confidence (1-10): _____
• Imposter syndrome (1-10): _____

LearnLess Tool: Weekly Report Card auto-generates from your activity

Real Recovery Tracked

Case Study - Alex, 28

Week 0 (Before LearnLess):

• Addiction Score: 31/36 (Critical)
• GitHub stars: 1,842
• Projects shipped (last year): 0
• Building ratio: 15%
• Emotion: Anxious (8/10), Imposter syndrome (9/10)

Week 4 (Mid-Recovery):

• Addiction Score: 19/36 (Moderate)
• GitHub stars: 412 (deleted 1,430)
• Projects shipped: 1
• Building ratio: 68%
• Emotion: Anxious (5/10), Hopeful (7/10)

Week 8 (Recovered):

• Addiction Score: 6/36 (Healthy)
• GitHub stars: 47 (deleted 1,795 total)
• Projects shipped: 3
• Building ratio: 92%
• Emotion: Confident (8/10), Calm (9/10)

Week 24 (6 months later):

• Addiction Score: 3/36 (Fully recovered)
• GitHub stars: 23 (only active tools)
• Projects shipped: 14 total
• Building ratio: 97%
• Career: Promoted, +$32,000 salary

Alex's Insight:

"The tracker made recovery objective. I couldn't lie to myself anymore—the data showed I was hoarding, not learning. Watching the graveyard shrink and projects count grow was the motivation I needed."

The Anti-Metrics

What LearnLess Does NOT Track

Deliberately excluded (to prevent gaming the system):

❌ Courses completed

• Reason: Encourages tutorial consumption, not building

❌ Articles read

• Reason: Reading ≠ Skill

❌ GitHub stars collected

• Reason: Hoarding metric, not building metric

❌ Time spent learning

• Reason: Passive consumption doesn't count

❌ Notion pages created

• Reason: Organizing ≠ Producing

Philosophy: If it doesn't ship, it doesn't count.

Your Recovery Tracker Setup

Step 1: Baseline Assessment (Today)

Measure:

• Addiction Severity Score: Take assessment
• Current graveyard size: _____
• Projects shipped (last year): _____
• Building ratio (last month): _____%

Face the truth.

Step 2: Set Recovery Goals (30 days)

Target:

• Addiction Score: <10 (recovered)
• Graveyard reduction: 90%
• Projects shipped: 2+
• Building ratio: >80%

Write it down.

Step 3: Track Weekly

Every Sunday:

• Update metrics
• Review progress
• Adjust strategy
• Share publicly (accountability)

No hiding from the data.

Step 4: Celebrate Milestones

When you hit:

• First project shipped → Share on LinkedIn
• Graveyard reduced 90% → Treat yourself
• 30-day clean streak → Celebrate publicly
• Full recovery (ASS < 8) → Apply for new jobs

Positive reinforcement matters.

The Choice

Option A: Keep Tracking Fake Metrics

12 months from now:

• Courses completed: 24
• GitHub stars: 2,500
• Projects shipped: 0
• Career: Stuck
• Emotion: 😰 Busy but anxious

Option B: Track Real Metrics

12 months from now:

• Projects shipped: 12+
• GitHub commits: 1,200+
• Active users: 500+
• Career: Promoted
• Emotion: 😎 Confident and capable

Your Next Step

Right now:

1. Take the addiction assessment
2. Calculate your graveyard size
3. Set recovery goals (30/60/90 days)
4. Start tracking ONLY output metrics

Get Your Recovery Tracker: LearnLess Assessment

Remember:

• What gets measured gets managed
• Input metrics are lies
• Output metrics are truth
• You can't improve what you don't track

Stop measuring learning. Start measuring shipping.

The numbers don't lie. Start tracking the right ones.