The question of "having it all" cropped up yet again in the comments on today's post about newly appointed Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. She just announced that she's pregnant, which has some people wondering how she'll balance work and family.  

One commenter argued that no, Mayer can't have it all—nobody can. lolexecs describes the fruitless attempt to "have it all" as a complex, ongoing trade-off:

Life is a multi-objective optimization problem and there is a one big constraint: time.  Everyone has been granted varying amounts in their life and every activity one chooses to pursue (including typing comments into the Atlantic) consume a bit of this resource.  

Who knew mathematics had something to teach us about work-life balance? 

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David Wagner