In the @linear Polishing Season AMA, the team is asked how they measure quality. They can't give a clear answer, and I think that's correct.

Quality is made up of many small and large parts, and all of them need to work together. That's naturally hard to measure.

People are able to recognise and make quality after years of surrounding themselves with high-quality things. Our brains learn the patterns of quality, and then we recognise them elsewhere.

So, how do you measure quality? You put it in front of someone who recognises quality.

I'm firmly in the "everything can be broken down to rules and measurements" camp, but even I admit that something like quality is too complex to measure in a sensible way.

Yes you could list every factor that makes e.g. a vase high quality, but it'd be a long list.

And those measures of quality you list (e.g. "high clarity of glaze) wouldn't translate to another thing.

Heuristics are an attempt to define and measure quality, but you still need an expert to come in and check the thing against the list of heuristics.

When people talk about how to measure something, I feel like it's most useful when it can be used by someone who is NOT an expert.

If we could measure quality, anyone could come along and check the numbers to see if there's an issue. "We're at an 8 and we need to have 9"

To put all of this another way, I'm sure it's possible to reliably measure quality. But I don't think any method to do that would be anywhere near as affordable as finding an expert and asking them their opinion.

The Linear polishing season AMA is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1L7ht3a_M