Right, but I can come up with an infinite number of examples. Take javelin throw – the essential skill is, well, throwing a javelin. There are many things that can theoretically be measured – distance, height, speed, jiggling, precision, throwing efficiency. For some reasons (historical, practical) distance was chosen. So now javelin throwers are good at distances but not at anything else. Like it's obvious that if you don't train to hit the target with a javelin, you are probably not going to be good at it.
So it's unlikely our javelin throw champion can outperform the average ancient human in hunting mammoths, for example.
I see "mastering javelin throwing skill" as a True Goal and "distance" as a metric. True Goal probably includes many aspects of the skill (let's say "distance" and "precision"), but as we measured only distance, others got neglected. The end result is far from True Goal because we disincentivize athletes to practice other aspects of that basic athletic skill. If the correlation between "being a truly great javelin thrower" (i.e. great at all aspects of the skill) and a "distance" existed, using it for competition resulted in the collapse of the correlation. Classic Goodhart's effect.
There are lots of real world examples of this same phenomenon and they usually result in ridiculous losses combined with minor gains on one parameter. Balance is the key but we tend to reward the specialists (records, finances). People always want to know who is 'best' at something. Triathlon is one attempt to break this but even there it is all quite physical. Chessboxing is another :)
So it's unlikely our javelin throw champion can outperform the average ancient human in hunting mammoths, for example.
I see "mastering javelin throwing skill" as a True Goal and "distance" as a metric. True Goal probably includes many aspects of the skill (let's say "distance" and "precision"), but as we measured only distance, others got neglected. The end result is far from True Goal because we disincentivize athletes to practice other aspects of that basic athletic skill. If the correlation between "being a truly great javelin thrower" (i.e. great at all aspects of the skill) and a "distance" existed, using it for competition resulted in the collapse of the correlation. Classic Goodhart's effect.