Going beyond a local maximum

Many of us are lazy by default. And nobody wants to lose what they have, unless they know that they can get something better. That means that a person might change things around only when forced to, when there's a clear outside and internal expectation, or when the situation gets too bad.

At least that's what I'm experiencing at work. I've got the most fun project that I've ever done! It consists of several features crucial to me. I get to work on a team of colleagues who usually enjoy talking about the tech, I keep learning more every week, I'm working with technologies I love, and the work seems alright, morally speaking. What's there not to like?

I don't know. I haven't had the opportunity to experience that many projects. There's still a lot I haven't learned yet, perhaps I'd enjoy a project with more stringent code standards and processes.

While I have no idea whether any other project might be better, I think I'm willing to take the risk. Even if the project I'll end up doing would be worse.

Expressed in mathematical terms, I've reached a local maximum. In order to reach a higher local maximum, I'll need to increase the variance during testing. I don't know of a strategy for reaching a global maximum.

Well, there could be a point to being careful when varying your testing. For instance, you might not want to throw away all your personal and professional relationships, in order to find something better.