Principles of Operations Research—1. The Sutton Effect

This is the first of a set of articles on Principles of Operations Research. As the reader will note, these are somewhat different from similarly titled subjects in the usual textbooks. The Sutton Effect was named for the distinguished scholar Willie Sutton, who became famous because he was outstanding in his chosen profession, namely that of robbing banks. He became available for an interview when his career was eventually brought to a close, and he was then asked, “Why do you rob banks?” And his immortal answer was: “Because that's where the money is.” The relevance of the Sutton Effect to OR is that it constitutes a directive to examine the possible pay-off before undertaking an extensive effort on a problem.