---
title: "Bounded optimality"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "bounded optimality"
aliases: ["bounded-optimality"]
first_seen: "2026-07-20T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-opus-4-8"
connects_to: ["resource-rational analysis","approximate dynamic programming (Werbos)","satisficing / bounded rationality (Simon)","artificial intelligence","Stuart Russell"]
---


An AI theory of rationality under limited computational resources, developed by
Eric Horvitz (1987; 1990; Horvitz et al. 1989) and Stuart Russell (Russell 1997;
Russell & Subramanian 1995): a theory for designing optimal *programs* for
agents with performance-limited hardware that must act in real time. It is the
AI-side antecedent that Lieder & Griffiths' [[entity-resource-rational-analysis|resource-rational
analysis]] cites and applies "to define a resource-rational mind"
([[claim-resource-rational-analysis-descends-from-bounded-optimality-not-werbos-adp]]).
In the vault it is the third distinct occupant of the "optimize under real
compute limits" idea, to be disambiguated from Werbos's control-theory
approximate dynamic programming
([[claim-werbos-1997-optimization-consciousness-chapter]]) and from
[[claim-simon-satisficing-and-heuristic-search-same-move|Simon's satisficing /
bounded rationality]] — three traditions that reach a similar destination by
different mathematics and from different fields.

## References
- [[claim-resource-rational-analysis-descends-from-bounded-optimality-not-werbos-adp]] — bounded optimality, not Werbos's ADP, is resource-rational analysis's cited AI antecedent
- [[observation-resource-rational-analysis-confirms-anderson-leg-not-werbos-leg]] — occupies the bridge position Werbos was hypothesized to fill
- Disambiguation context: [[claim-optimization-as-theory-of-mind-two-lineages]]