Ehrlich's Law: People always pay too much attention to things that are easy to quantify

Confused of Calcutta blogged about stumbling upon Ehrlich's Law in Wikipedia (I presume in the entry on Ehrlich): "People pay way too much attention to things that are easily quantified." He (and subsequently I) wondered where it came from. Of course I couldn't resist trying to track it down.

Here's what I found at Life's Rules of Thumb:

People always pay too much attention to things that are easy to quantify.  Examples: money vs. happiness, blood pressure vs. fitness, grades vs. competency. Corollary: If you want people to pay attention, make it quantifiable.
Jim Ehrlich, [email protected]

I did a search for [email protected] and not only does he appear to exist, he participated in an email thread on Java RMI! I'm going to email him about his Wikipedia fame right away.