The Explore/Exploit Tradeoff

I’m listening to an interesting book about how certain algorithms which are famous in mathematics and computer science can help us understand our own lives.  One of the chapters speaks about the multi-armed bandit problem in which there is a tradeoff between exploring to gain new knowledge and exploiting the knowledge one already has to get the highest expected payoff.  This explore/exploit tradeoff is everywhere in our lives from finding a parking space to finding a spouse.  We have to decide when we stop searching for something better and use what we already know to bring value to our lives.  If we never stop exploring (e.g. keep looking for a parking spot but never actually parking because we think we can find something better) then we won’t get to enjoy the fruits of exploring.  On the other hand if we don’t explore enough before we put our knowledge to use we may really miss out on value we could add to our lives (e.g. taking the very first parking spot we find even if it is a long way from where we want to be).  There’s a balance to be had in this tradeoff; we have to look for a time but then at some point stop looking and use our knowledge to improve our lives.    

I think we see themes in the scriptures that illustrate the need to both explore and exploit when it comes to spiritual matters.  When the Savior was on the earth He encouraged to do both.  One of His most common invitations was to seek (explore): “Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (3 Nephi 14:7).  The Pharisees of his day wouldn’t seek new spiritual truths—all they wanted to do was exploit their misguided understanding of the Law of Moses and refused to explore the new things that Jesus taught.  When the blind man whom they questioned said to them, “Will ye also be his disciples?” they answered, “Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.  We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from when he is” (John 9:29).  In other words, they could only accept what they already knew (the Law of Moses) and refused any exploration even after Christ had miraculously healed the man.  Christ also taught the need to exploit once we have found what we are looking for.  We need to search until we have found the kingdom of God and then treasure it: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matt. 13:44-46).  Both the man in the field and the merchant man spent time looking, but once they found what they were truly seeking, they stopped searching so they could obtain it and enjoy it.  They explored for a time and then they exploited (used) what they found.  There is also danger in exploring too much.  When Paul was in Athens he noticed how they “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).  Their over-zealousness to learn everything meant that they were good listeners to Paul but unwilling to act on anything he said.  Paul described this same attitude that people in the last days would have when he wrote to Timothy saying that the people would be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).  We can spend so much time learning and searching out new information and knowledge that we never actually find anything that we put to use in valuable ways in our lives.

               Ultimately the gospel teaches us that we must explore until we find the Lord, and then we must commit to follow Him and not be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).  We are promised in numerous places in the scriptures some variant on this passage in Deuteronomy: “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).  And this isn’t just a one time thing; each day we must seek to understand the Lord’s will and then act to perform it once we have discovered what He wants us to do.  The gospel requires us to consistently seek out knowledge and then act on what we have found.