There’s a point in the Netflix documentary “Inside Bill’s Brain” where the director asks Bill what he focuses on, and Gates responds “Optimization.” That’s a powerful word from one of the most powerful men out there.
I feel like I’m not even thinking about optimization in my day to day life. Often, it’s about getting things done, completing tasks and juggling multiple responsibilities. An MBA is overwhelming, but managing a global billion dollar charity must be as well, right? So, what am I missing? My sense is that optimization comes with expertise. When a person has depth of knowledge in a field, they begin to understand how important optimization becomes. Small changes in a large machine can compound and result in fantastic improvements. In operations theory, we learned that optimizing your activity with the lowest throughput is the most important way you can improve flow. Optimization is about understanding the system and diving in.
The problem for most people is they don’t know what the throughput of their system is, because when you’re managing six different things that are changing every day, how do you step back and analyze where you’re getting stuck? When entrepreneurs are launching a company, hiring people, building product, raising capital and managing a company, how much does optimization matter? Or is it more important to smash things over the line and move onto the next? I’m genuinely curious. Optimization feels like an academic problem when you’re in the trenches. How do you find time for it?