Coco Krumme at the Harvard Bookstore: Reapproaching Optimization with First Principles

On Oct. 17, Coco Krumme, an applied mathematician and writer, spoke about her new book in conversation with Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of International Law and Computer Science, at the Harvard Bookstore. Krumme leads a fascinating talk to present her new book “Optimal Illusions,” which traces the fascinating history of optimization and the detrimental consequences of intent focus on the future. Krumme ultimately asks readers to reapproach optimization and any normalized system by returning to first principles and recognizing the trade-offs that come with efficiency.

Krumme’s background is immediately striking to readers: After graduating from MIT and working in technology, she moved into a cabin on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Krumme admits that this decision was not easy:

“The heroic version of this is that I threw away my belongings and moved to a remote place,” Krumme said. “The more real version is that through a bunch of small decisions, I ended up moving there first part-time and then slowly evolved into where I live. It’s certainly not a choice I regret.”

Optimization has long dominated both Krumme’s professional pursuits and personal life, shaping the way she constructs mathematical models and finds the quickest routes around her small town.

Growing up, Krumme had a passion for math and writing. After college, She began her career with what she describes as “a feeling of awe” for mathematics, with her new potential to search the world for the best solutions. However, the disconnect between the promise and reality of optimization quickly became apparent. Krumme took a job as an optimizer in Silicon Valley, observing first-hand that big tech was not the answer to the world’s problems.

“My romanticism had waned,” writes Krumme. “I felt the fakeness in all this abstraction, in trying to represent the lushness of a field with green pixels on a satellite map.”

Optimization seeks to bound the world within a tidy frame or model, a strategy that companies within Silicon Valley eagerly adopt and integrate into every aspect of the workplace: While engineers search for optimal data-storage solutions, HR managers make the most of the workforce with streamlined workflows.

However, optimization has negative impacts, especially in the agricultural industry where optimized machines are replacing traditional farming. In the book, Krumme goes out into the field and interviews a sixth-generation North Dakota farmer, who fears the threat that the revolution in optimized plant breeding poses to their family business, which has not changed for centuries.

While Krumme realizes there is no way to truly opt out of or substitute optimization, she asks the readers to confront and question this norm. Even in the town where Krumme lives, a place where very few people had ever heard of ChatGPT, the onslaught of tech solutionism could not be evaded.

In the talk, a lot of the conversation revolved around the creation and use of artificial intelligence, a more recent form of optimization.

“When what has been hyped falls short,” Krumme said, “we tend to dismiss the prosaic concern but also often toxic ways that these technologies are infiltrating our systems.”

Drawing on years of knowledge in optimization, Krumme’s main advice for readers is to think creatively and not place too much emphasis on achieving ultimate efficiency in an ever-changing world. In short, one must be aware of the constraints of optimization and drop the emphasis on efficiency entirely.