Optimization

Once you become sensitive to the word, you may often notice someone suggesting optimizing some process or activity. Usually they're talking about optimizing the efficiency of that process, that is, getting the most output value for the least input cost.

Optimizing the efficiency of an electrical motor design involves creating a motor with the most rotational power for the least electrical power. As a side effect, this should also give you the least amount of heat thrown off by the motor, as that heat is energy that doesn't go into producing rotation. That seems simple enough, doesn't it?

Now let's dig a little deeper into the problem. It's unlikely that you're creating that motor design just to turn the shaft of the motor. It's more likely that you want that shaft to turn something else. That something else may have a range of RPM that are useful. Perhaps a slower rotation won't do the work that the "something else" is intended to do. Perhaps too fast a rotation will damage the "something else" that the motor is driving.

The input of the motor also requires some consideration. Are you designing a motor for one particular electrical source, or for a wide variety? What voltage might that electrical source provide? How much current can it provide? Does it deliver direct current (DC) like a battery does? Or does it deliver alternating current (AC), such as most of the world uses for electricity distribution, and if so, what at what frequency does it alternate? Is it a clean sine wave, or perhaps a square wave such as what you might find from a cheaper DC to AC converter? And what is the source impedance of the electrical source?

You probably don't understand what all of these questions mean, much less what the ramifications are for different answers. Know that a competent motor designer will consider all these factors, and many more.

Now let's jump to consideration of optimizing a different sort of system, one composed of people working in concert to accomplish a multitude of outcomes. This is a much more complex situation. What are all of those intended outcomes? In what ways do the desired outcomes affect and possibly contradict each other? In the competition between different outcomes, which are more important? And to what degree are they more important? Would some of each be better than one or the other?

Also, to whom are they important? There are many constituencies to consider in almost all cases. Is this being done under the request or financing of someone or some group? What about the people affected by the outcomes? Consider also the people working to accomplish them. There are overlaps and conflicts between these different constituencies. How will you reconcile these differences in judging the optimization?

It's worth noting that the word "optimize" is a back-formation from "optimist." Certainly "taking the most hopeful view of a matter"¹ is very different from "making efficient." It suggests to me a passive hopefulness rather than working to improve things, and is reminiscent of Pangloss' assurances to Candide in Voltaire's novel.

All of these questions in this essay, or variations of them appropriate to the circumstances, are worth considering in any endeavor. What are the inputs? What are the outputs and potential side-effects? What are the contexts? Who is involved? Who is affected, and in what way? As an added bonus, consider how these answers, considered iteratively from multiple viewpoints, correspond with your own value system.

P.S. This newsletter goes in a little different direction than some recent ones. As I was exploring another topic, I got too deeply into cognitive psychology and neuroscience to produce a newsletter by the end of the month. As you can see, I've delayed right to the very end.

Does this sort of topic resonate more with you than the ones delving into cognitive psychology and neuroscience? Perhaps it's a welcome relief, either as a permanent or temporary alternative. I'd love to know your reaction to this newsletter issue.

And if you'd like to talk further about this topic, you could schedule a Zoom Session with me to talk about it. I would value the conversation.

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