Optimisation

Everything in the world is always subject to optimisation. Organisations, business processes, costs, are all constantly exposed to further improvements. That is how growth happens, and how everything becomes better overtime.

Today, we will look at one such facet of life, which we in our daily lives optimise for.

“World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation.”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky

For those of you who don’t know, I got my Masters in Business Administration 4 years ago. And might I tell you, it was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. Don’t get me wrong, going back to college after having worked in the corporate space for a year and a half had its own challenges.

And the journey in and of itself wasn’t breezy throughout the two years of the curriculum, but it still taught me a lot about life, people and well, business. There were a number of subjects I had to undertake, which at the time did not appear to have a lot of correlation to business.

One such subject was Operations Management. One of the chapters in the book of this subject was called linear programming. For those who aren’t aware of this, linear programming helps us identify best solutions to problems that can be depicted by a linear relationship between variables.

When I looked at the book for the first time, it looked akin to basic coordinate geometry. There were a lot of graphs, coordinates and equations in the book. I wasn’t super smart to be honest, and I found it cumbersome to connect how this would come into play in business.

That was until I realised I had an insightful professor. He took the time to explain the connection between LP (as we fondly called it) and business. One of the first equations I understood was cost optimisation, wherein, we used two variables and identified optimum relationship between the two to minimise cost in the process.

It’s been four years, and I haven’t had the chance to use LP in my profession yet, but I hope to God that I do one day. The reason being, it has impressed on my mind the idea that by simply moving some variables, we can identify the solution to any problem, so long as its linear.

Recently, I had been thinking about the biggest question ever, which I believe must have been asked by everyone at some point in their lives.

What is the best way of living life?

(Not to be confused with Mr. Ranveer Allahabadia’s version of the meaning of life question, since he has his very interesting approach to cover this question amongst even bigger questions like smoking weed or other, more pleasurable activities).

First, I had to identify the right variables. What are possible end goals in life? I came across numerous answers; fame, wealth, status being the most tangible ones.

I dug a bit deeper, and thought about why these were important to a substantial number of people. All of these variables seem to be intermittent variables, which means, they all lead to one path.

The holy grail. The end all, be all. The requirement of all requirements.

Maximising Happiness.

Almost everyone would welcome, and would intend to boost their happiness levels.

However, the world will always have a contrast, and therefore, the other group of people live in another way, which would cause the same result, and still is a completely different way of living.

Minimising Suffering.

And then it struck me.

Life is an eternal exercise in maximising happiness and minimising suffering.

The key to leading a balanced life, I’ve come to understand, is embracing both of them. Our universe, however impartial, is still of a giving nature. Both happiness and suffering are impermanent, it helps further our efforts in either direction, whichever one you decide to choose.

Now this isn’t some groundbreaking revelation. At some level, all of us know and understand this concept. However, putting this top of mind can help prioritise the right things at the right time.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂