Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Maximizer? Satisficer?
Recently I’ve been reading Reclaiming Conversation, the Power of Talk in a Digital Age, by Sherry Turkle, a book about the effects of technology, specifically smart phones, on conversation. I am interested in this as a mother, but also professionally. In my work, I see how technology distracts my clients and pulls them away from the things they intend to do.
Turkle mentions the research of economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon, who came up with the terms maximizer and satisficer in the 1950s to describe people who are always aiming for perfection and people who make the best of what they have. Like most paradigms, I think that many of us fall into a grey area, but Turkle’s point is that our phones work like like Miracle-Gro on our maximizer tendencies.
Why settle for less than perfect when, if you just reword your search one more time, you will find the exact, precise thing you dreamed of that will make you whole?
The problem with maximizing, from an organizational standpoint, is that it means that nothing is ever done: There is always something better out there, if you just look a little harder. It also speaks to the terrible etiquette our new technology breeds. A maximizer won’t just R.S.V.P. to your evite. They’ll say maybe and then watch the guest list (to see who is and isn’t coming), leaving their options open in case they get a better invitation. Open-ended is bad for organization. If you never make decisions because there always might be a better option, then you don’t really finish things and move forward.
If that isn’t incentive enough, consider that Satisficers, plugging along, making lemons out of lemonade, tend to be happier.
So commit, be satisfied, and move onto the next thing. Perfection is over-rated, and happiness is easier than you know.