{"id":711,"date":"2026-05-29T05:28:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/satisficing-vs-maximizing\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:28:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:28:05","slug":"satisficing-vs-maximizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/satisficing-vs-maximizing\/","title":{"rendered":"Satisficing vs Maximizing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maximizers tend to be less satisfied with their decisions and their lives. They are typically less happy, more prone to regret and more likely to compare themselves endlessly with others. Satisficers don\u2019t necessarily have low standards. Their standard is \u201cgood enough for me\u201d rather than \u201cthe best out there,\u201d and that makes it possible to feel satisfied with their choices, instead of haunted by the ones they didn\u2019t make.<\/p>\n

The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who first used the term \u201cflow\u201d to describe states of complete absorption in an activity, put it well. By making up one\u2019s mind to invest in a choice, regardless of more attractive options that may come along later, \u201ca great deal of energy gets freed up for living, instead of being spent on wondering about how to live.\u201d
\nThis is critical today because chronic maximizing has never been easier. In 2006 an economist calculated that the consumer options available to citizens of modern economies exceeded those of preindustrial societies roughly by a factor of 100 million. That is an almost incomprehensible multiplication of choice, and it extends well beyond consumer goods into questions of who to be, how to live, where to work and whom to love.<\/p>\n

Social media has intensified the problem by functioning as an infinite comparison engine. When you can see a curated highlight reel of everyone else\u2019s career, relationship, home and vacation, the very concept of \u201cgood enough\u201d begins to feel like settling.<\/p>\n

The pull to keep searching for something better has poisoned even the most mundane moments. Research shows that giving viewers many videos to flip between makes them more bored than if they focus on just one. One way to interpret the findings is that the mere notion that something better might be out there spoils the moment.<\/p>\n

Studies in the United States and China show that since about 2010, young people have reported becoming increasingly bored. Dating apps have offered a version of Mr. Paulos\u2019s thought experiment, with users forever wondering what might be beyond that next swipe \u2014 maximizing in its purest form.<\/p>\n

And now artificial intelligence promises to help us optimize everything: our schedules, our diets, our wardrobes, our creative output. If Mr. Simon was right, the hidden danger of these tools is that they will expand the menu of options and comparisons even further.
\n\u2014 Read on www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/12\/opinion\/decision-making-herbert-simon.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maximizers tend to be less satisfied with their decisions and their lives. They are typically less happy, more prone to regret and more likely to compare themselves endlessly with others. Satisficers don\u2019t necessarily have low standards. Their standard is \u201cgood enough for me\u201d rather than \u201cthe best out there,\u201d and that makes it possible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,99,28,133,14,31,19,111,23],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-attention","tag-boredom","tag-categories","tag-choices","tag-common-sense","tag-concepts","tag-knowledge","tag-laziness","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.adlington.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}