Question
What is good enough decision making?
Quick Answer
For most decisions good enough is better than perfect because the search cost exceeds the improvement.
Example: You need a new project management tool. A maximizer evaluates every option — Asana, Monday, Linear, Notion, Jira, ClickUp, Basecamp, Height, Shortcut — reads comparison articles, watches demos, starts free trials, asks colleagues, reads Reddit threads, and three weeks later picks one but keeps wondering if another would have been better. A satisficer defines criteria upfront (must have: Kanban boards, GitHub integration, under $10/seat), evaluates tools until one clears every threshold, and starts using it that afternoon. The maximizer's tool might be 5% better on some axis. The satisficer shipped three weeks of work in the meantime.
This concept is part of Decision Frameworks in the How to Think curriculum.
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Go beyond the answer
This topic is part of Close Your Knowing-Doing Gap — a guided sequence of 19 lessons.
After completing this path you will understand why knowing what to do was never enough, have a trigger-based system that initiates action without willpower, know why self-discipline fails and system design succeeds, and experience the relief of closing the gap between your intentions and your behavior — because the system does what motivation couldn't.
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