The success of operator splitting techniques for convex optimization has led to an explosion of methods for solving large-scale and nonconvex optimization problems via convex relaxation. This success is at the cost of overlooking direct approaches to operator splitting that embrace some of the more inconvenient aspects of many model problems, namely nonconvexity, nonsmoothness, and infeasibility. I will introduce some of the tools we have developed for handling these issues, and present sketches of the basic results we can obtain. The formalism is in general metric spaces, but most applications have their basis in Euclidean spaces. Along the way I will try to point out connections to other areas of intense interest, such as optimal mass transport.