{"product_id":"optimal-illusions-isbn-9780593331118","title":"Optimal Illusions","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow optimization took over the world and the urgent case for a new approach\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Optimization is the driving principle of our modern world. We now can manufacture, transport, and organize things more cheaply and faster than ever. Optimized models underlie everything from airline schedules to dating site matches. We strive for efficiency in our daily lives, obsessed with productivity and optimal performance. How did a mathematical concept take on such outsize cultural shape? And what is lost when efficiency is gained?\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOptimal Illusions\u003c\/i\u003e traces the fascinating history of optimization from its roots in America’s founding principles to its modern manifestations, found in colorful stories of oil tycoons, wildlife ecologists, Silicon Valley technologists, lifestyle gurus, sugar beet farmers, and poker players. Optimization is now deeply embedded in the technologies and assumptions that have come to comprise not only our material reality but what we make of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCoco Krumme’s work in mathematical modeling has made her acutely aware of optimization’s overreach. Streamlined systems are less resilient and more at risk of failure. They limit our options and narrow our perspectives. The malaise of living in an optimized society can feel profoundly inhumane. \u003ci\u003eOptimal Illusions\u003c\/i\u003e exposes the sizable bargains we have made in the name of optimization and asks us to consider what comes next.\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eOptimal Illusions:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Provocative, brisk and refreshingly nontechnical” —\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating book, both deeply researched and deeply felt, \u003ci\u003eOptimal Illusions\u003c\/i\u003e is an elegy to all we’ve sacrificed to the religion of efficiency and economies of scale. But it is also a quietly hopeful guide to the more human, interdependent, imperfect yet uplifting world that might come next.” —Oliver Burkeman, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eFour Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Combining her training as a mathematician with a keen critical eye, Coco Krumme provides a deep and arresting look into the outsized role of optimization in our everyday lives. An incredibly timely book!” —Cal Newport, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDigital Minimalism\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA World Without Email\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Are you tired of excess rationalism and optimization? Do you suspect there is something more to life? If so, \u003ci\u003eOptimal Illusions\u003c\/i\u003e is your preferred guide to some fascinating and more robust new perspectives.” —Tyler Cowen, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Great Stagnation \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eCoco Krumme\u003c\/b\u003e is an applied mathematician and writer. After completing her doctorate at MIT and working in technology, she founded a scientific consultancy and moved into a cabin on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, where she now resides.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303814025445,"sku":"NP9780593331118","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593331118.jpg?v=1767734244","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/optimal-illusions-isbn-9780593331118","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}