I Asked an Algorithm to Optimize My Life. Here's What Happened

I was halfway through a master's in Computer Science when my vision changed. I was working as a data scientist during my summer off from school, and I had friends who said things like "I'm at a local maximum" in normal conversation. Wherever I looked, suboptimality began standing out as though highlighted in the angry red of a programming error. There was the athletic-looking youth whose slow amble blocked the walking path so no one else could pass--suboptimal. There was the friend I ran errands with who planned stops in an inefficient order, so the driving took three Nicki Minaj songs longer than it needed to--suboptimal.