When your ducks refuse to get in line it’s time to satisfice
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I’ve typed and retyped this paragraph 10 times. I was looking for an interesting way to talk about my perfectionism. I guess actions speak louder than words.
My lifelong quest for perfection has taught me one critical lesson: Done beats perfect. It’s become a personal mantra. I repeat it to myself almost every day.
I still get satisfaction when something approaches it’s aesthetic or functional optimum. But I’ve grown weary of sacrificing progress on the altar of perfection.
I recently discovered a term that captures my mantra wonderfully: Satisficing.
My iPhone assumes I can’t spell and is underlining it in red. Apple must have been too busy taking 30% of all App Store purchases to update their dictionary with a word introduced by a Nobel Prize winner in 1956.
Herbert Simon combined satisfy and suffice to explain how decision makers behave when it’s very hard to get all their ducks in a row.
He explained in his Nobel Prize speech that "decision makers can satisfice either by finding optimum solutions for a simplified world, or by finding satisfactory solutions for a more realistic world.”
These days I try to combine satisficing with iteration. Turns out that done doesn’t just beat perfect, it’s actually a good path towards it too.
I still get satisfaction when something approaches it’s aesthetic or functional optimum. But I’ve grown weary of sacrificing progress on the altar of perfection.
I recently discovered a term that captures my mantra wonderfully: Satisficing.
My iPhone assumes I can’t spell and is underlining it in red. Apple must have been too busy taking 30% of all App Store purchases to update their dictionary with a word introduced by a Nobel Prize winner in 1956.
Herbert Simon combined satisfy and suffice to explain how decision makers behave when it’s very hard to get all their ducks in a row.
He explained in his Nobel Prize speech that "decision makers can satisfice either by finding optimum solutions for a simplified world, or by finding satisfactory solutions for a more realistic world.”
These days I try to combine satisficing with iteration. Turns out that done doesn’t just beat perfect, it’s actually a good path towards it too.