A map of a coastline does not change the coastline. Many of the maps people make of each other are different. A ranking, a forecast or a published measure is read by the very people it describes, and they adjust. The thing being measured shifts because it was measured.
This is not a reason to stop describing things. It is a reason to notice which descriptions are passive and which are participants. A thermometer reports the temperature. A widely watched number about behaviour can end up steering the behaviour it was meant to report.
When the measure becomes the aim
The pattern is familiar: a measure chosen because it tracked something important becomes the thing people aim at directly. It keeps rising while the underlying thing it once tracked drifts away from it.
A measure chosen because it tracked something important becomes the thing people aim at directly.
Holding maps loosely
One response is to use several descriptions at once, so that no single one carries the whole weight. Another is to change them from time to time, before they settle into targets. Both treat a map as a working tool rather than as the territory itself.