Good, better, optimised

Optimise seems to appear in front of just about everything – your life, your business, your workflow, your health, your time. It made me wonder what it is supposed to mean.

I know the term fits comfortably into practices like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO). That sounds right – the algorithms should be making sure we’re getting the best bang for our buck.

But, if we all ‘optimise’ our lives, will we end up being the same? Have you noticed how there seem to be a few car categories now, and all the brands within the category look exactly the same? If we all send out email newsletters at 10am on a Tuesday, will it still be recommended as the best time to do so?

I asked Google’s Gemini to help me understand whether this highly technical term has been artificially plugged into our human lives.

Its answer was yes and no.

The word ‘optimise’ has its roots in philosophy before it entered the technical lexicon. It is a back-formation from the noun ‘optimist’, which was first recorded in 1759. The root is the Latin word optimus, meaning ‘best’.

The verb ‘optimise’ appeared around 1844, initially meaning ‘to act as an optimist, take the most hopeful view’. The modern transitive meaning, ‘to make the most of, develop to the utmost’, had surfaced by 1857.

The concept of optimisation as a formal, mathematical discipline emerged around World War II with the development of Linear Programming by individuals like George Dantzig, who sought to solve complex problems, such as efficiently allocating military resources (including logistics and supply chains).

The term rapidly became central to computer science and software engineering in the mid-20th century, particularly with code optimisation, which is the process of rewriting computer program instructions to maximise efficiency and execution speed or minimise memory usage. This practice became standard as computers became more complex. The field of mathematical programming (broadly synonymous with optimisation) was coined in the 1940s.

Then came the usage I’m more familiar with, from the digital marketers who adopted the term much later by building on the established use in computer science. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) emerged around 1997, and Social Media Optimisation (SMO) was introduced around 2006 by marketer Rohit Bhargava to describe using social platforms to enhance a brand’s online presence.

My concern is that, when we apply a technical term that sets out to find a singular ‘best’ mathematical answer to our nuanced, creative lives, we risk stripping away the unique, human elements that truly define quality and originality. 

We can’t stop the march of AI or the power of data, but we can choose what we let it optimise. Algorithms can find the fastest or cheapest solution, yet the ‘best’ human endeavours are often characterised by creativity, originality and authenticity. The only place you’ll find that is inside yourself, and digging it out can be time-consuming, frustrating and arduous. 

It’s a lie that everything’s easy, do you agree?

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