I learn from one of my supervisors a good example on how to apply what we know into our daily life. When I asked him about travel routes that he usually takes as for my reference, he asked me back what is my objective that I want to optimize. Yes, optimization. It is a topic that I have studied for very long. Decision making is also a topic I have given a seminar on. So why not implement it in my travel plan.
For an optimization to be possible, we need a clear objective. In this case, my objective is to maximize my wife’s happiness. We also need to be aware of the constraints such as the budget. Another consideration is whether there is any other point such as visiting any of the theme park would score more points and that the utility of my wife on the number of cities will decrease after certain number of cities due to the tiredness. Last, but most importantly, we need to know what are the decision variables. In this case, this means the airline company, the route to reach the starting point of the travel, and the sequence among the cities to be visited.
Another thing to consider is that whether we consider all possible alternatives or only the alternatives that we can think of. If the latter is true, then we need to acknowledge that whatever we get, it may be near optimal solution, instead of the true optimal solution. At the same time, we don’t want to dwell so much to find the true optimal solution as the cost of getting it may not be worth the extra efforts to thoroughly consider all the possible alternatives. In other word, good enough solution is fine.
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