Decision-making in realtime. How do we make effective decisions quickly enough to keep up with a large number of simultaneous problems in the same system?
Decisions are not always single actions, they are ongoing movements whose path can be altered. One way to do this would be to make a best guess immediately, and then wait for better information that may reveal it as the optimal/suboptimal decision. As the probability of the decision being in error increases, the likelihood that the decision needs to be changed also increases. Pencil and paper “simulation” of production planning. Maximization is a Lofty Goal. Maximization is characteristic of the goals in capitalist economics.
Corporations are legally required to maximize profit, and according to the most extreme views of market economics, humans are supposed to be rational self-maximizers (Homo economicus) and the maximization of personal profit or utility is supposed to create the most efficient possible economy (efficient market hypothesis). In general, sellers are expected to minimize cost and maximize profit in order to succeed. On the surface, it sounds as if this minimization of cost should result in an efficient economy, but the other component, the maximization of profit, ensures this cannot happen.