Engineering Optimization

15Intuitive Optimization

15.1 Introduction

As humans, we seem able to safely cross a country road. We can guide our muscles to avoid stepping into the mud in ruts or tripping on a rock. If a truck is coming, we can decide whether to cross or to wait, without quantifying the exact location of the vehicle position or speed and without a double‐precision calculation of the time for truck arrival.

We plan weekly menus and shop for food without exact calculation of the diverse nutrients that we are supposed to heed in nourishment, or item cost (after‐tax, after‐coupon, after‐special‐offer, after transportation to and from) even though we are seeking to minimize cost, subject to meeting all of the nourishment constraints.

We choose topics of social conversation to avoid potential conflicts, to maximize happiness in interaction, or to initiate or terminate a visit. There is no model for what is often a stochastic situation.

Although this book guides you to develop models that quantify how DVs affect the OF, in nearly every daily human decision we are also attempting to optimize, but do not have models. We don’t have definitive knowledge. We don’t use optimization algorithms. We live life making intuitive decisions. And it works!

Regardless of whether the optimization is based on a “gut feel,” design heuristics and “rules of thumb,” or whether it is an approximate optimization with an idealized model or coarse convergence criterion or rigorous optimization, the user needs to understand ...