[jcranmer]

This is one of those things where the math is actually pretty simple, but the notation is incredibly opaque (in part because things are generalized to hell) if you haven't been exposed to it before.

In layman's terms: you have a set of n variables, a set of m constraints on those variables (like x + y ≤ 3, or x² + y² ≥ 1), and some function you're trying to minimize. Oh, and everything involves real numbers, no fancy stuff like complex numbers or rationals or p-adic integers or Banach spaces.

The book itself gives you a taste of what you need to know to fully understand the material:

> The only background required of the reader is a good knowledge of advanced calculus and linear algebra. If the reader has seen basic mathematical analysis (e.g., norms, convergence, elementary topology), and basic probability theory, he or she should be able to follow every argument and discussion in the book.

[FooBarBizBazz]

> This is one of those things where the math is actually pretty simple, but the notation is incredibly opaque

If you're not used to it, this kind of notation looks like hieroglyphics.

If you are used to it, every vague English-language technical document you see floating around your workplace just reads like a bunch of flailing-arm hand-waving.

[Solvency]

What do you mean by that?

[gms7777]

Usually, language that tries to simplify or put things in layman's terms is missing important detail for fully specifying the problem. It's like watching the 3 minute version of a recipe on YouTube and thinking you have a good understanding of how it works, but then when you go to make it, you realize they didn't tell you if they used whole-wheat or all-purpose flour, or if they bake at 350 or 450, or in a glass or aluminum pan. If you try to follow the recipe, you might end up with something significantly different. It's not that the quick, intuitive version isn't useful, you can gain a lot of insight and get a high level picture often much quicker than you would reading the complete, fully specified recipe. But if what you want to do is reproduce the recipe exactly, you need the fully specified version. Personally when I'm writing technical documents, I prefer to include both the intuitive overview and the fully specified technical version.

[FooBarBizBazz]

Heh. I make a comment about unclear/inexplicit communication... using a metaphor that itself has little specific concrete meaning. And you write this reply. "Oh no, I have been deconstructed!", I say, laughing, in the voice of the Wicked Witch of the West as she is melting....

Or maybe you were really asking. That's the thing about the Internet. Only the FBI knows you're a dog, and nobody knows what the dog really means.

But if it really was a question, gms7777's sibling reply is good.

[twic]

> Oh, and everything involves real numbers, no fancy stuff like complex numbers or rationals or p-adic integers or Banach spaces.

Or integers! You could probably do complex convex optimisation okay, but when it's integers, you need a whole new set of techniques.