12/13/2025

The global vs. local problem could be solved via the well-known technique of simulated annealing.

I recommend reading Global vs. local first.

Simulated annealing is a probabilistic technique for approximating the global optimum of a given function. Specifically, it is a metaheuristic to approximate global optimization in a large search space for an optimization problem. For large numbers of local optima, simulated annealing can find the global optimum. -Wikipedia

Very plainly, simulated annealing is an optimization algorithm which walks through the search space with leaps that become smaller when time passes. The fact that the steps are initially very large, makes simulated annealing better suited than gradient descent for finding an approximate global optimum. We can draw parallelism between education throughout life and simulated annealing. As we grow older, our education (high school, undergrad, master, PhD) becomes more specific.