@Ana, are you living my life?! Our crappy dishwasher that we bought under duress in 2009 refuses to die but I can’t replace it in good conscience (yet).

I’ve found that almost no decision is irreversible, especially the “littler” stuff like jobs, purchases etc. I also see bad decisions as a valuable source of learning about what you DON’T want (just like bad boyfriends). In some ways, I’ve learned a lot about what I do like from the crappy choices I’ve made 🙂

@Kathleen – I think your approach to hiring a contractor is smart. If people you trust are raving about him that’s about as good a vetting process as you can expect.

In our personal lives, my husband and I embrace this approach wholeheartedly. We purchased our home after touring nine houses in a two day period. Seven years later, we still love it. It’s our “forever home” and we’re doing a major renovation. For the reno, we interviewed one contractor. The neighbors used him for their gorgeous addition, and they couldn’t stop singing his praises. Why waste time interviewing 10 more people?

We’ve decided upon cars and couches and many other things the same way – set some (high) standards and say “yes!” to the first option that meets them.

Unfortunately, satisficing isn’t much embraced in my profession of choice: biglaw. You can call a brief a “draft,” but it’s supposed to be as finished as your skills can make it before sending it to the partner.

@Sarah – rather than laziness, I prefer to view it as not caring too much about things that aren’t that important to you. Probably most of us are on a spectrum, and there are some things we tend more toward maximizing and some toward satisficing.

Confidence has a lot to do with it–I know that not only is no situation going to be perfect, but generally I can fix things or make adjustments to make anything better, and that goes a long way in making me comfortable with making decisions quickly and with decisions I’ve made in the past. I would also add that going with your gut might sound trite, but I think it’s honed through being a satisficer–sometimes you know that something meets your criteria faster than you can reason out why.

I too have moved towards satisficing as I get older and wiser. My mother once described a colleague as having “islands of perfections in a sea of chaos”. That can happen to maximizers. On a small scale, I used to have perfectly organized drawers in a messy bedroom. Now I am able to, without angst, jam some unfolded clothes into a drawer in pursuit of a neater room. Satisficed.

PS. The Philadelphia suburbs can be a sublime place to live/raise a family/stay forever. In many senses, we have access to anything you could want.

@Anna- thanks, and congrats on your new home! I’m sure it will be great. The issue of satisficing/maximizing probably gets into the narratives we have about ourselves. I’m sure it is very important to some folks to believe that they are the kind of people who never settle. Who want to make sure they and their loved ones have the best. It can be a very positive trait sometimes (you care so much about your friend that you want the perfect gift and need to see all the options) but it can also be an exasperating one. Especially for those of us who believe that nothing is perfect.

And there are probably many ways the real estate metaphor also works with spouses!

@Ana- exactly. As long as you have a decent dishwasher, it is probably going to be OK.