Tuning can’t fix bad data, poor features, or a broken pipeline. If your model’s not working, start with the basics before you reach for Optuna. Hyperparameter optimization is often oversold. It’s only effective when your data pipeline, feature engineering, and model choice are already solid. Otherwise, you’re just searching for the best result in a broken system. Focus on data quality and pipeline integrity first... tuning is the last 5%, not the first 95%. [[Hyperparameter Tuning]] [[ML]] [[Serendipity]]