I'm not usually a grammar guy but this one bugs me: the singular of maxima is maximum. "A local maximum," "twelve local maxima."

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Also one phenomenon, multiple phenomena.

Criterion, criteria... Greek and Latin will get ya.

I know this but every time I try to speak the words I say the wrong one.

It's like a stock-market bubble/crash, where prices can keep going up/down because [investors are acting following one-anothers' lead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trend_following ).

In both cases, the social-animals are following their peers, inferring direction from them, ultimately forming a big loop that doesn't actually progress to a desired social-outcome because everyone's following everyone-else.

The capitalist dream! "Growth" can be infinite along a circular path

Is it a local maxima, or is it a metastable solution? Or are those the same thing, at their root?

(this is a legitimate question; I have a very limited math background, and would love to understand the distinctions better, or what variable is being locally maximized, if that's what this is)

Metastability and local maximums are the same.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability

In physical/chemical systems metastability and local _minima_ (of an energy function) are the same. But for cases where the thing being optimized is not energy, and where the universe isn't driven to the optimal state, do they need to be the same?

One example: the current US healthcare system with providers, insurers (e.g. middlemen), and end users?

It shouldn't be considered a local maximum if slight deviations can improve the situation. In that case, it's just lack of ability to optimize.

"sclerotic"

Yeah, after seeing a video, it reminds me of something out of r/politics.

Circular dependency?