Explore and exploit

One thing I love about computer science is the fact that it is a recreation of the real world and it's problems in a simulated, sandbox environment. One such problem is explore and exploit. The answer to why your parents/grandparents prefer the same restaurant and at the same time why the toddler puts anything he gets his hands on in his mouth.

Explore and Exploit is the distinction between till when do we try out new things and when do we draw the line for trying anything new. As for every problem, there has to be an optimal solution beyond which looking for more options would be a lossy equation, and vice versa so.

As a child, you were trying to talk to everyone, wave back whenever anyone waved, made friends with ease, preferred to go to new places over the same, liked new food over the routine. This has a very important evolutionary reason. As a child we have our entire lives ahead of us, a life of uncertainty yet at the same time a life with limitless possibilities.

But somewhere down the line while growing up we slowly give up on this exploration and build comfort zones, comfort places where we would like to go again and again than trying something new. The best example would be travelling to a new city, when you travel to a new city, you are all up for exploring new restaurants, going to tourist place exploring everything you can, till you become accustomed to the place. On the other hand when you are planning to leave a city for good, you want your last meals to be at a specific restaurant you have pride on. Re-visit places you had been to a dozen times, why? Exploring no longer adds any intrinsic value, thi rs is the best time for you to exploit on your explorations till date.

Explore and exploit applies to other fields of life including relationships, as kids we befriended everyone, but on the other hand our grandparents are a tight knit group of 2-3 people. They have the same close ones till the end, and they refuse to make new explorations, because that makes sense for them. They have explored their entire lives, and at this stage of their lives it is better to exploit the best among what they have explored.

How does this help you and me? Knowing the 37% rule and this phenomenon in itself gives you an edge. You will no longer be subconsciously choosing to explore or exploit for you. You can draw strict lines, give yourself a deadline to explore and then exploit from.

This can apply from choosing a job, hobby, finding someone to be with, renting a place. Any problem you can imagine. This explore and exploit methodology gives you a time to do research for your market without the research being an indefinite task.

In life's problems, finding optimal problems is going to be hard, very hard. But finding sub-optimal problem in a small chunk of that time is possible and is the goal. Being mortal beings it is better to solve problems sub-optimally in a constrained time environment than wait for the perfect solution.

Next time you come across a problem, remind yourself you have this under your control. Decide your explore time and then start exploiting what the best you got.