I often return to the author Morgan Housel. Morgan has a unique lens into human behavior, and I always walk away with new insights after reading his articles and books.
A recent piece of his discussed the concept of “good enough.” The idea is that, at some point, we reach the flat part of the curve, and it takes enormous effort to make the next leap. It made me realize how foreign this concept of satisficing is to most physicians.
As undergrads, we had to be at the top of our class and ace the MCAT to get into med school. During med school, we had to earn honors in our courses and crush the USMLE to land a great residency…
The cycle continues.
As physicians, we are trained to think through a differential diagnosis and consider the worst-case scenarios. Throughout training, we expect perfection.
While this may be important and helpful in our clinical careers, perfection becomes an anchor when we apply this framework to our personal lives.
The concepts of maximizing and satisficing capture this distinction.
We are all well acquainted with maximization. You can pull out your phone and google the best pizza, the best beach, or the best movie out this weekend. All this “information” is at your fingertips at any moment.
In researching this way, we give up our individuality and rely on the consensus of the masses. How often does this express our individual desires?
Moreover, when we expect “the best”, we set ourselves up for disappointment when the experience does not live up to our expectations.
Certain areas of our lives are worth maximizing – health and relationships immediately spring to mind – but I’m here to argue that we are better off satisficing most decisions.
What is satisficing? One way to consider this is as “good enough.” Instead of always looking for the best, decide to meet your needs in a way that costs a reasonable amount of time or money – where you decide what is reasonable for your priorities.
The critical distinction is recognizing the time and energy involved in always looking for the best. For your last purchase (e.g., a phone charging cable, picking a new restaurant, or where to go on vacation), be honest about how much time you spent “researching” the best options.
Was the outcome worth all the time and effort?
Ramit Sethi often talks about living Your Rich Life ™. Ramit asks what areas or things bring joy and pleasure to your life. It could be traveling or cooking. It could be spending time with friends and family. Ramit loves to travel, stay in fancy hotels, and fly in business class. So he spends richly in these areas.
Ramit argues that you should lavishly spend time and money in these areas of your life and be good enough for all other areas. This is maximizing and satisficing in action.
This view aligns with a quote I’ve often heard and passed along, “You can have anything you want, just not everything you want.”
We implicitly shut off other options whenever we spend our time, attention, or money. We don’t often think about spending this way, but it’s true.
When we spend time researching online, it’s time not spent with your kids. Extra time spent at the office is not spent caring for your health.
I don’t know about you, but the first time I heard about satisficing, I had two reactions:
- It immediately made sense to me.
- And it also felt deeply uncomfortable.
As physicians, our identity is often wrapped up in being (or having) the best. We worked diligently to train and take excellent care of our patients. Why can’t we have the best of everything?
At first, we may think we can maximize every aspect of our lives. As a parent of a toddler, I’ve run into the brick wall that shattered any illusion of that.
My task for you this month is to think about your values and the areas of your life that bring the most joy and satisfaction. Then ask, are you maximizing these experiences and things?
And where are you spending excess time trying to maximize a decision when satisficing would do? Stay the course.
