Definition
The holy grail of efficiency nerds and perfectionists everywhere—the absolute best possible outcome given your constraints, no ifs, ands, or buts. In tech and business, it's what everyone claims their solution is, though statistically speaking, most are just "pretty good." The difference between optimal and adequate is what separates the engineers who sleep well at night from those who wake up at 3 AM wondering if they could've shaved off another millisecond.
Example Usage
After three weeks of testing, we determined the optimal coffee-to-water ratio for the office machine, though half the team still thinks it tastes like sadness.
Source: Optimization and algorithm terminology
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See “optimal” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.
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