Before you choose this book, answer three questions:

You've spent years saving while working as a bank teller.

Then your employer announces a new annual bonus.

The first year, you receive more than $20,000.

The second year, you receive even more.

You know that if you stay, there will likely be another next year. 

      1. Would you leave?

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You've been accepted to two similarly ranked universities.

One is close to everyone you love.

The other is in a place you've never been, where you don't know a single person.

      2. Which would you choose?

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After years of graduate school, you're offered a faculty position.

It's an extraordinary opportunity for your career.

But you're not sure it's where you want to build your life, and you have no other offers.

      3. Do you accept?

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There are no right answers.

Only different futures.

These weren't hypothetical questions.

They were mine.

From a small Caribbean island to becoming a professor, my life wasn't built by following a carefully designed plan. It emerged from a series of decisions made with incomplete information, uncertain outcomes, and no way of knowing what would come next.

Local Optimization is the story of those decisions and the surprising life they created.