most optimisation asks for the best; goal programming asks for good enough, several times over. 𐃏 you attach a numeric target to each of several objectives, measure how far the plan misses each target, and minimise the misses you dislike. the philosophy is herbert simon’s satisficing1 — real decision makers do not maximise a grand utility function, they set aspiration levels and stop when they are met — and the machinery is pure linear programming: goal programming was invented by charnes and cooper as an LP device2 and remains the most-used technique in practical multi-criteria decision making precisely because it never leaves LP territory.