A Midlife Crisis for Operations Research? New Fundamental Challenges for the Profession? Another View

In a recent article published in this journal, Fiksel [Fiksel, Joseph. 1980. Winning is not everything: The midlife crisis of operations research. Interfaces10 (2) 106–107.] detects a midlife crisis in OR/MS. He perceives there to be two “fundamental challenges” facing the profession; the formulation of models embracing the “wholistic nature” of systems and the need to redirect problem-solving approaches toward “the evolving needs of society.” In addressing the second challenge the objective of “winning” is to be de-emphasized and other objectives stressed to a greater extent. I believe that arguments at odds with these sentiments are easily as persuasive or as plausible as those of Fiksel, and I would like to record several of these arguments.