What are you optimizing for?

A driver going way over the speed limit, looks at car driving the speed limit on the road and thinks: “why on Earth are they driving so slow?”

The driver going the speed limit looks at the driver passing them and thinks: “why on Earth are they driving so fast?”

They’re optimizing for different things.

The driver going blazing speeds could be optimizing for travel time or the thrill of going quick, or some combination of the two.

The driver going the speed limit could be optimizing for obeying traffic rules or for safety, or some combination of the two.

They each hopelessly wonder why the other is behaving differently yet when you consider that the possibility that they’re optimizing for very different conditions, it’s actually no wonder at all.

A crude example of a common phenomenon when we find our methods diverging from another’s: a difference in what we’re optimizing for.

When you’re collaborating, establish overlap in what you’re optimizing for early.

There will be greater incentive to work together.