Satisfice Our brains are good at finding satisfactory solutions, fast. Sometimes we regret them later as we imagine the ideal thing we coulda-woulda-shoulda done. The urge to make the most of life is natural, but if you’re always optimizing, you’re never happy. When I find it hard to stop optimizing, I remind myself that the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a mathematical proof that “satisficing” is better than optimizing. Herbert Simon showed us why embracing a satisfactory solution is better than investing in endless analysis.
