The robot you've described is, I think, not sufficiently equipped to find its way to the highest mountain without assistance. Likewise, one might look at oneself and observe that one is ill-equipped to predict which course will bring the greatest happiness. One might conclude that outside assistance is needed, or that happiness is not a quantitative thing at all, not an altitude but an attitude (TM). If you can *see* a peak that is clearly taller than where you are, crossing the valley to climb it makes more sense; but if you can only see three feet metaphorically...