# Quote — Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems

> These examples confuse effort with result, one of the most common mistakes of this kind is designing systems around the wrong goal. Maybe the worst mistake this kind has been the adoption of the GNP as the measure of national economic success. [...] If you define the goal of a society as GNP, that society will do its best to produce GNP. It will not produce welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency unless you define a goal and regularly measure and report the state of welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency.

- Author: [Donella H. Meadows](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows.md)
- Book: [Thinking in Systems](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donella_Meadows#Thinking_in_Systems:_A_Primer_(2008)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/these-examples-confuse

## More from this book

> How is it that one way of seeing the world becomes so widely shared that institutions, technologies, production systems, buildings, cities, become shaped around that way of seeing?

p. 169 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/how-is-it-that.md)

> There always will be limits to growth.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/there-always-will-be.md)

> The bounded rationality of each actor in a system may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of the system as a whole.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/donella-h-meadows/thinking-in-systems/the-bounded-rationality.md)