Satisficing

Last Updated on March 11, 2021

Satificing is one of my favorite mental models.

Every day we make so many small low-impact decisions. Learning about “satisficing” changed how I go about making those decisions. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s been life changing for me!

What is satisficing?

The term “satisfice” was coined by a guy called Herbert Simon in 1956 by combining the words satisfy and suffice.

I like this definition:

Satisficing is a decision-making strategy that aims for a satisfactory or adequate result, rather than the optimal solution.

I wrote more about what satisficing is here, as well as in my mental model newsletter.