Things that frost my gourd (Part 3)

I've got two of them today:

1. My week involved making a lot of extra-frantic super-emergency very-important last-minute changes and additions to some documentation some days after the documents were 'finalized'. What bugged me is that these changes were either because:
   
   
   • the reviewers reviewing the documents did not review them properly some months ago when they were supposed to, or
   
   
   • new software (requiring the complete reworking of most of a chapter and the addition of an appendix) had been developed over some weeks, and the first I hear of it is 3 days before the documents are to be approved and published (publication being a 5 day process).
   
   Snarl, argh and spit!



2. Numbers (of any kind) as a substitute for effective management. I do not mind collecting statistics for management purposes; if the stats I have to collect actually mean something.
   
   A good analogy to the type of stats I was asked to collect would be '"How many square feet of garden did you make changes to in the past month?". The gardening involved 2 beds, each 5' by 10', for a total of 100 sq ft, so you give them that number.
   
   The back story to this number is that there are two beds in the garden. One bed already existed. It was planted with perennials some years ago, is well mulched and has an automatic watering system. The only effort those 50 sq ft required was weeding (two hours once a week, maximum twice a week).
   
   The second bed was a new bed that you decided to add. The effort for those 50 sq ft was:
   
   
   • double digging the bed to a depth of 4 feet and adding soil amendments to adjust for low Ph and little organic matter in the sandy soil (3 x 7.5 hour days)
   
   
   • purchasing the plants, soil amenders, mulch and fixings to expand the automatic watering system (1 x 7.5 hour day to find everything if you are very lucky)
   
   
   • planting the plants (1 x 7.5 hour day)
   
   
   • mulching the bed (4 hours)
   
   
   • installing the extension to the automatic watering system (6 hours)
   
   
   • repurchasing plants and replanting when deer ate 1/2 of your new plants (1 x 7.5 hour day)
   
   
   • fencing in the new plot (2 x 7.5 hour day) to keep out the deer
   
   Over the month in question, 50 sq ft involved a maximum of 16 hours, the other 50 sq ft a minimum of 70 hours.
   
   How does the statistic of 100 sq feet convey anything even remotely meaningful about the effort involved in the garden? (This certainly has me completely baffled.)