Perspectives

I have all the constraints necessary for success. I first learned the philosophy of constraints in my Operations Research class. I signed up for the class out of curiosity after reading a course description that promised learnings in Math that would help me optimize essentially everything: from the volume and types of cheese manufactured in a factory, to layouts for grid connections, to even stock portfolios. While I wouldn’t say I became the best Operations Research practitioner, I can say that the class helped me understand how the paired forces of production and reduction serve to create optimal outcomes. In a classic maximization example where we want to produce the most of something - profit, returns on an investment or connected nodes in a network - we tend to have an equation that describes our inputs. The goal then, is usually to combine the inputs in a way that creates the maximum output. We call this the act of maximizing the objective function. On the other hand, we also tend to have a function that describes certain costs associated with the inputs, essentially defining a boundary within which we must combine our inputs. This boundary is usually pre-defined and isn’t something we can negotiate, much like the bounds of a basketball court or the amount of damage we can take in a video game. As we seek to maximize our objective function, our goal is usually to minimize the constraints. ...

I like mood boards and I like blank canvas. I like studios and I like labs. I like cities and I like markets. I like kitchens and I like gardens. And I, most definitely, like galleries and garages. I’ve been thinking a lot about perspective, point of view, attitude and themes focused on how we navigate life internally and externally. For a long time, I’ve looked for a box I could fit comfortably into, but the more I searched, the more my quiet desperation turned into confusion, which then turned into disillusionment. It took many tries at thinking, asking, dialogue and contemplation to eventually synthesize a worldview I could live in and love. But first, I had to go through an existential crisis, earnestly consider nihilism, and experience spiritual awakening and spiritual rebirth. Like a drowning man, I floundered until I came to surrender, and in surrender, I floated. In the acceptance of my differences and quirks, I found my uniqueness. ...