Be Satisficers And Not Maximizers

It often happens that we go to Netflix to find a show, and we keep scrolling hoping to find the best possible show. Two hours go by and yet we still didn't find a show to watch only now it's our bed time.

We often find ourselves stuck in a loop trying to find a better show, a better partner, a better book to read. Instead of maximizing stats and trying to find the best one, we should just pick one and be satisfied with it and try to make the best out of it.

Maximizers believe that carefully studying all the options will improve their life, and increase their chances of success. But this isn't true. We should simply not care about exploring all the options and trying to think "what if there's something better out there?"

A great quote that I heard was maximizers make good decisions and feel bad about them. Satisficers also make good decisions but feel good about them.

Maximizers evaluate each option before making a decision. But when you make a decision, your brain will rationalize it as the right one. Rationalization is an ability that convinces us we picked the right thing. Maximizers can become satisficers by analyzing the secretary problem. The riddle puts us in the shoes of someone who's trying to hire a secretary. According to science, we must interview thirty-seven percent of people and select someone. That becomes our benchmark. We should hire the next candidate that's better than that benchmark. We can use this in dating too. When we have enough data, pick a benchmark and when we meet someone as good or better as that person, commit to them.