# TBM 437: Tokens, Hours, Points, and Other Curious Proxies

DevFeed: [TBM 437: Tokens, Hours, Points, and Other Curious Proxies](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/tbm-437-tokens-hours-points-and-other-curious-proxies-40064.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-437-tokens-hours-points-and-other>)

Author: John Cutler

Published: 2026-08-17T23:04:04Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [The Beautiful Mess](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-beautiful-mess.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [context](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/context.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [comparisons](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/comparisons.md>), [measurement](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/measurement.md>), [metrics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/metrics.md>)

## AI overview

An opinion article examines the difficulty of measuring the return on AI token usage. It compares tokens with hours and flow metrics, arguing that measurement depends on a broader theory of value and can favor short-term, easily measured use cases.

## Source excerpt

Everyone is talking about "return on tokens." Vendors love it (as long as the news is good).