Fortune? -- was Re: optim with simulated annealing SANN ...

Folks:

I thought John Nash's comment below was profound and a possible
Fortunes candidate:
(Aside: I believe it applies to a great deal of what is discussed on
this list, not just stochastic optimization.)

Cheers,
Bert

... (in the context of stochastic optimization)

...  As with many tools in this domain, for effective use they
require more knowledge than many of their users possess, and can be dangerous because they
seem to "work".

JN

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics

Internal Contact Info:
Phone: 467-7374
Website:
http://pharmadevelopment.roche.com/index/pdb/pdb-functional-groups/pdb-biostatistics/pdb-ncb-home.htm