In daily life, you are doing multiple choices in order to maximize the impact of your doing with the smallest effort. This is called optimization. You don’t even think about how much optimization you are doing every day. Some decisions are made based on life experience and some are coming from the spine. For example, people can optimize their lifetime, savings, incomes and effectiveness.
One example of the optimization is to sleep less and work more. You can also do some things in a certain order to save time. For example, you could put a coffee machine on and then start with your lunch. While you are enjoying your lunch, the machine is busy and you are getting your cup of coffee right after the lunch. This saves you some minutes compared to an order where you eat first and then make a cup of coffee. In bigger or more complicated things you can use mathematical models to reach the best solutions. Good example where you might use mathematical equations is in optimizing the balance between material saving and maximum volume.
Example
Your task is to make a box with maximum volume. For this you have a paper sheet which size is 12cm x 12cm. The thing you need to know is how big squares you should cut away from the corners before bending your paper sheet into a box.
Formula of volume:
Now we will use formula of volume and add our values in it.
Then we have to derivative the equation and solve the zero points of the derivative.
Zero points give us equations maximum and minimum values. We know also that x must be between 0≤x≤6 .
To achieve highest volume, removed square length must be 2cm and volume is 8 * 8* 2 = 128 cm^3.
I guess optimization is coming by itself if you are just doing the right things in right order. But the good question is how to know what is the best answer or choice to make? In small things, such as example with coffee, the impact on your life is rather small. The impact is daily but you can’t actually ruin your life or make it heavenly by changing the order of things. The impact is probably much greater when thinking about mathematical models and optimization of your own money or your company money, material usage or effectiveness of processes. Some impact is more direct and some is indirect and should be analyzed by other factors. Either big or small impact, these two examples I gave you can be easily measured. What about things that are not that easy to measure?
Some important things in your life are not that easy to measure. Talking about things like level of happiness, freedom or independence, satisfaction in your relationships, health etc.. With those things, you should take into account the time factor. It is not always easy to see things in the long run or foresee the outcome. When thinking about 20 years, how do you know what is the right order for things that should happen? And what things should not happen? Is some discomfort tolerable because you have a greater goal and it requires temporary inconvenience? I guess the main question is how to optimize your life the way that at the end you have achieved those great things that you desire with less effort and less regrets.
-Marko
