Like how Robin Dunbar said humans can have about 150 social relationships, there is a similar number for the number of top level business metrics executives can track comfortably
Firstly, you have just reinvented the Miller number. 7+/-2 is the number of things that human being can hold in their working memory, according to a famous paper by psychologist George Miller. That's a more useful starting point for analysis than the Dunbar number. But this too is a wrong starting point. The Miller number is the number of independent things we can hold in our working memory. If you're a CEO, many of the metrics will be in long term memory. In addition, you can track many more numbers when they are systematically connected.
interesting you say Miller number is (avg) 7. back in IIT, when our professor was teaching us multithreaded computation, he casually remarked "the human mind can simultaneously maintain seven threads of thought. and so - if you can maintain eight threads of thought simultaneously, you are great! that's why asHThaavadaana is so revered"
Firstly, you have just reinvented the Miller number. 7+/-2 is the number of things that human being can hold in their working memory, according to a famous paper by psychologist George Miller. That's a more useful starting point for analysis than the Dunbar number. But this too is a wrong starting point. The Miller number is the number of independent things we can hold in our working memory. If you're a CEO, many of the metrics will be in long term memory. In addition, you can track many more numbers when they are systematically connected.
interesting you say Miller number is (avg) 7. back in IIT, when our professor was teaching us multithreaded computation, he casually remarked "the human mind can simultaneously maintain seven threads of thought. and so - if you can maintain eight threads of thought simultaneously, you are great! that's why asHThaavadaana is so revered"