Random Post 2: Optimization

Optimization is a weird concept, and one I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

In your typical math class, you solve problems to optimize for a certain variable, or in a broader lens, try and find the most efficient ways to get problems solved. 

In your typical academic year, you try to gear your schedule up to optimize for two of three outcomes – academic success, a vibrant social life, and sleep.

In your typical lifespan, it’s a bit more hazy. Some optimize for money, some optimize for power, others for family, and still others for spiritual fulfillment. While general, this doesn’t even begin to cover the wide array of things people end up wanting to prioritize in their lives post-graduation.

However – optimization by its nature requires prioritization of one outcome at the expense of one or many others. This is the idea that’s been living rent-free in my head these past few weeks. 

It isn’t too deep when you put it in the context of a classroom environment – sure, you probably don’t understand what you’re doing when you’re solving problems at the speed of light, but you’ll never need this stuff in the “real world” anyways. 

But when you zoom out to the context of what you prioritize in your formative years in college, things get heavy. Going out all the time just to come back home and crash causes grades and future career prospects to slip. Trying to be both the social butterfly and the academic all-star means a mythical and unachievable eight hours of sleep each night. It’s a bit reductive to simplify life down to this transactional nature, but there’s some truth to it. Everything involves some sort of tradeoff. 

When you zoom farther out to look at life as a whole, tradeoffs become experience-defining. The father who optimizes for money because he was hungry growing up sacrifices time with family, the spouse who optimizes for the happiness of their partner relinquishes the full potential they could have achieved in their career. 

It’s difficult to look at life this way – as humans, I’d think we’d like to focus on the things we are choosing instead of the things we’re not. But there has to be some value in understanding what you’re giving up before venturing into what “matters” in your life.