Evan Martin ([info]evan) wrote,
@ 2008-03-06 19:46:00
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exploitation/exploration
The other day I went to a friend's apartment in a neighborhood of SF I'd never been to before. He'd bought a big ladder from a hardware store so he could get onto the top of his building, because there we could see a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate. Erinn always chides me for never leaving my own neighborhood, but even here I've yet to go to the restaurant a block from my home. One way of looking at it is that I simply lack the taste for adventure, or that with so many opportunities I'm overwhelmed with the choice. Another way of looking at it is that I have millions of ideas, boxes of tea, stacks of books I have yet to topple. In machine learning ("AI") you call this the exploitation/exploration tradeoff: how confident are you that the optimum is near where you are already versus a yet-to-be-discovered new peak. Me, I make a point of adjusting for my own bias towards conservatism, not because I'm unhappy with where I am but because the only way to know you're in a local maximum is to try something unknown.

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I can't believe I even wrote this
[info]codetoad
2008-03-07 04:41 am UTC (link)
The only way to know you're at a local maximum is to try something unknown, then try an infinite number of unknowns, calculate the difference between them and your current place in life as the amount of space between them approaches zero and see if that sum approaches zero. Of course, this is no guarantee that this is a global maximum.

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[info]jope
2008-03-07 05:21 am UTC (link)
Optimization? Pah! The main benefit of this type of exploration is a healthy bit of novelty, which is good for the ol' brain (and for the soul).

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[info]evan
2008-03-07 06:13 am UTC (link)
I think that is more what I was intending to write. I kinda wrapped this one up in a hurry because I was meeting a friend.

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[info]perligata
2008-03-07 09:04 am UTC (link)
(In the Mission.)

I kid, I kid...

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[info]evan
2008-03-07 07:55 pm UTC (link)
You kid because it's true! (But at least I was meeting up with a non-local ("south bay") friend I hadn't seen in months...)

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re: novelty
[info]eaterofhands
2008-03-07 09:54 pm UTC (link)
I recall reading a recent article stating novelty is also the key to long, rewarding relationships. I've found it applies equally well to learning.

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[info]four
2008-03-07 10:46 am UTC (link)
I'm in the same boat. Without careful consideration I will sit here and program for the rest of my life.

I think booking one-way flights to unknown places tends to shake up things a bit - when the dust settles and you find yourself in a valley but perhaps one at higher elevation. If not, you return.

The great thing about booking flights is that it only takes about 30 minutes and can be done far in advance enough that it's not so scary.

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nap-induced inspiration
[info]perligata
2008-03-08 03:55 am UTC (link)
1. It occurs to me that your reluctance to leave your neighborhood might be fueled by your somewhat weak sense of direction. (This isn't intended as an insult!)

2. Chapter 5 in Nabokov's La Veneziana somewhat indirectly reminded me of this post. A brief look indicates it's not readily available online, and since I'm running out right now, I'll transcribe the particularly salient paragraph(s) for you later.

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Re: nap-induced inspiration
[info]eqe
2008-03-26 09:55 pm UTC (link)
(Did you transcribe them?)

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Re: nap-induced inspiration
[info]perligata
2008-03-31 07:35 am UTC (link)
I didn't, but I will now since the book is conveniently sitting right next to me!

The distinctive feature of everything extant is its monotony. We partake of food at predetermined hours because the planets, like trains that are never late, depart and arrive at predetermined times. The average person cannot imagine life without such a strictly established timetable. But a playful and sacrilegious mind will find much to amuse it imagining how people would exist if the day lasted ten hours today, eighty-five tomorrow, and after tomorrow a few minutes. One can say a priori that, in England, such uncertainty with regard to the exact duration of the coming day would lead first of all to an extraordinary proliferation of betting and sundry other gambling arrangements. One could lose his entire fortune because a day lasted a few more hours than he had supposed on the eve. The planets would become like racehorses, and what excitement would be aroused by some sorrel Mars as it tackled the final celestial hurdle! Astronomers would assume bookmakers' functions, the god Apollo would be depicted in a flaming jockey cap, and the world would go merrily mad.

Unfortunately, however, that is not the way things are. Exactitude is always grim, and our calendars, where the world's existence is calculated in advance, are like the schedule of some inexorable examination. Of course there is something soothing and insouciant about this regimen devised by a cosmic Frederick Taylor. Yet how splendidly, how radiantly the world's monotony is interrupted now and then by the book of a genius, a comet, a crime, or even simply by a single sleepless night. Our laws, though—our pulse, our digestions are firmly linked to the harmonious motion of the stars, and any attempt to disturb this regularity is punished, at worst by beheading, at best by a headache. Then again, the world was unquestionably created with good intentions and it is no one's fault if it sometimes grows boring, if the music of the spheres reminds some of us of the endless repetitions of a hurdy-gurdy.

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[info]erik
2008-03-08 07:00 pm UTC (link)
I try not to think about exploration too much, because it's too overwhelming. I remember one day during lunch when I used to work in downtown Seattle, I went across the street to the library and just wandered the stacks for awhile, and actually started crying at the realization that I would only ever read 0.000000000001% of the books ever written, and that I would probably never discover dozens of books that could easily mean more to me than anything I'd ever read.

See also: never meeting the person you could fall deeper in love with than anyone else, visiting a town that would be nicer to live in than any other, meeting people who would be better friends than any you've ever known.

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