Abstract
Optimization of a given system is certainly different from design of an optimal system. It is remarkable that in the age of limited resources and lagging productivity it is the philosophy of linear programming, i.e., maximization of a function with respect to given constraints, which dominates Operations Research thinking, education, and practice. This philosophy is wasteful of resources, ignorant of productivity, and, more surprisingly, unconcerned about profits. It teaches how to “optimize” a given system without paying enough attention to how such a system comes into existence. It is the purpose of this paper to show that the main shortcoming of LP is neither its linearity assumption, nor its algorithmic and scale inefficiency, nor its single-objective simplification—it is its inability to design an optimal system while concentrating on fine-tuning its “optimization” of a given system. How does the “given” come into being, that is the question.
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