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I'm of the opinion that optimization is a natural enemy of variety and diversity. Our businesses, economy, and more encroachingly, culture, are dictated by the

I'm of the opinion that optimization is a natural enemy of variety and diversity. Our businesses, economy, and more encroachingly, culture, are dictated by the requirement for many to optimize on cost and ROI. As such, we converge on all but a few well established optimized processes we essentially copy and repeat. Occasionally "disruptive" strategies emerge and find a new, better cost/ROI optimization solution. Variety and diversity on the other hand need to be able to discard cost/ROI focused optimization. They need to be inefficient/"wasteful", they need to take time and more resources because they're new or their fundamental variance that makes them appealing are defined by their very state of being sub-optimal. They need to be able to fail and iterate, not fail and die. I'm a proponent of optimizing on certain factors like cost, time, space and so forth under certain conditions, but I think we need to stand back as humans and be mindful of processes we seek to optimize and ask if some of them are factors we really want to optimize on. Do we want more square footage so we can cram another person or piece of furniture in or do we want to change our target optimization to include aesthetic appeal, variety, mental health... and so forth. We have our priorities way off as a society, I'd argue, and those priorities are being less of a choice and more of a mandate for many. Right now we're on a runaway freight train across society to optimize on cost and ignore everything else. This pandemic is sure to expedite that problem with the economic toll its taken. That cost saving/ROI optimization strategy, in our economic system, will "win" most times over other choices. If we are able to relax the financial constraints of many, then we can use that slack to focus on other factors that aren't always cost and profit driven.

blablablerg 6y ago
It must be right? Just like a mathematical optimization which looks for just one value for x (assuming a global optimum) and discarding the rest of the values (the 'diversity' in x). You see the same thing in pop music, which is optimized for popularity by the music industry. These days pop music sounds much more alike than say pop from the 60s or 70s. Same thing with athletes, in their sport there isn't much variety in physique. Under the neoliberal/capitalist doctrine, which tries to turn everything into a competition, the winners take all and the winners tend to be optimized for the same qualities.
randcraw 6y ago
Doesn't that question simply devolve into, "How much more are you willing to pay for variety and diversity?" Shopping at boutique stores certainly offer a more memorable shopping experience, better dining, or more engaging products than Amazon or Walmart, but at substantially greater cost/risk. When efficiency/safety becomes primary among your desiderata, variety and diversity will suffer. This is the exact conundrum covered well in Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" which bemoaned the social cost arising from city/village design that was optimized to serve too narrow a set of priorities, thereby eliminating opportunity to experience and share common spaces in more than one way.
- bluGill 6y ago
  Most "boutique" stores sell the same made in China junk as every other store.
volume 6y ago
What you describe are the downsides or limitations of Stage Orange from Spiral Dynamics. That's just another model, though about how societies evolve over time.
icebraining 6y ago
> Do we want more square footage so we can cram another person or piece of furniture in But is this what's happening? As far as I know, and particularly in the US, square footage is increase despite the reduction in the number of people per household. And are people really cramming stuff with furniture nowadays? It feels really strange to hear the complaint that the US is optimizing on cost, when from my side of the pond, US lifestyle feels if anything extremely wasteful.

blablablerg 6y ago

It must be right? Just like a mathematical optimization which looks for just one value for x (assuming a global optimum) and discarding the rest of the values (the 'diversity' in x). You see the same thing in pop music, which is optimized for popularity by the music industry. These days pop music sounds much more alike than say pop from the 60s or 70s. Same thing with athletes, in their sport there isn't much variety in physique. Under the neoliberal/capitalist doctrine, which tries to turn everything into a competition, the winners take all and the winners tend to be optimized for the same qualities.

randcraw 6y ago

Doesn't that question simply devolve into, "How much more are you willing to pay for variety and diversity?" Shopping at boutique stores certainly offer a more memorable shopping experience, better dining, or more engaging products than Amazon or Walmart, but at substantially greater cost/risk. When efficiency/safety becomes primary among your desiderata, variety and diversity will suffer. This is the exact conundrum covered well in Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" which bemoaned the social cost arising from city/village design that was optimized to serve too narrow a set of priorities, thereby eliminating opportunity to experience and share common spaces in more than one way.

bluGill 6y ago
Most "boutique" stores sell the same made in China junk as every other store.

volume 6y ago

What you describe are the downsides or limitations of Stage Orange from Spiral Dynamics. That's just another model, though about how societies evolve over time.

icebraining 6y ago

> Do we want more square footage so we can cram another person or piece of furniture in But is this what's happening? As far as I know, and particularly in the US, square footage is increase despite the reduction in the number of people per household. And are people really cramming stuff with furniture nowadays? It feels really strange to hear the complaint that the US is optimizing on cost, when from my side of the pond, US lifestyle feels if anything extremely wasteful.