Sparsity in Everything: Solutions to Everyday Decision Making

Going from Point A to Point B should be an exercise of endless optimization yet everyday we make a choice that rarely changes over time when asked to re-evaluate it. Let us consider the type of choice that goes into going to work everyday when you live in the suburbs of a European city and go to work in downtown (why European ? because there are more choices in the means of transporting people.)

- Use a car alone
- What trajectory should one take to avoid congested traffic.
- Use a combination of Car + public transportation
- Use Public Transportation only
- Bus or Subway or Railcar ?
- How much amount of walking is OK ?
- What time should one leave home
- .....

Very seldom these choices are reevaluated and in a vast population of possible solutions to go from Point A and Point B, we always choose one or two solutions. This is sparse! One should also note that these solutions are rarely optimal. We are mostly creature of habits.

The idea came from reading Bernard Beauzamy's initial document that started his Robust Mathematical Modeling effort.

Credit: Michael Mitchener, The Path not Taken.