Quotes About Optimization

It is much easier to put existing resources to better use, than to develop resources where they do not exist.

Constrained optimization is the art of compromise between conflicting objectives. This is what design is all about. To find fault with biological design - as Stephen Jay Gould regularly does - because it misses some idealized optimum is therefore gratuitous. Not knowing the objectives of the designer, Gould is in no position to say whether the designer has proposed a faulty compromise among those objectives.

Not only is there constant backtracking, but the many subproblems all remain simultaneously active and are addressed opportunistically.

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

To be fair, they don't deny that human beings are quirky and imaginative creatures - they just seem to reason that, in the long run, this fact makes very little difference. Those who don't follow an optimal pathway for the use of resources are destined for the ash heap of history.

Why is it that I always get a whole person when all I want is a pair of hands? -Henry Ford

You're better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.

My whole thing was, if I can put in 5 percent of the effort of somebody getting an A, and I can get a C minus, that's amazing," he explains. "It's certainly good enough, right? [Then] I can take the other 95 percent of the time and invest it in something I really care about.

You need slack to enable continuous improvement. You need to balance demand against throughput and limit the quantity of work-in-progress to enable slack.

David J. Anderson

The Value of Kanban is Counter-Intuitive

The success combination in business is: Do what you do better... and: Do more of what you do...

Software comes from heaven when you have good hardware.

If you aren't really careful, 'The Good Enough' can become the enemy of 'The Best.'

Large companies are very good at solving extremely complex problems in a globally optimal way.

You know, quarterbacks, I think greatness in quarterbacks is taking what you've got, whether it's a great team, a good team, or a struggling team and make them better.

Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims simply at evolution and nothing else.

Thrift means that you should always have the best you can possibly afford, when the thing has any reference to your physical and mental health, to your growth in efficiency and power.

Ask yourself always: how can this be done better?

Now I'm in the process of fine turning.

If you spend your time, worth $20-25 per hour, doing something that someone else will do for $10 per hour, it's simply a poor use of resources.

Say "no" to the good and say "yes" to the best.

I believe in the 20/80 rule. That's where working an extra 20% faster, harder, or smarter gets you an extra 80% of the rewards.

Winners don't do different things, they just do things differently+ Jan Jansen