Satisficing versus maximising

Set a threshold in advance and take the first option that clears it, instead of searching for the best one.

Time cost: 10 min to set up
Output: A written threshold and a search budget.
Steps: 5

Use when

Options are many, similar, and cheap to obtain.
Search costs are real — each additional option costs time you will not get back.
The decision is reversible, so a merely good choice can be corrected.

Do not use when

The decision is rare, expensive and irreversible. Then the search is worth its cost.
The options differ enormously, which makes the first acceptable one likely to be far from the best.

Inputs required

A threshold written before the search starts
A stopping rule

Procedure

01
Write the threshold first
What does good enough mean, in specifics? Write it before seeing any option, or the threshold will drift to match whatever you find.
02
Set a search budget
Number of options, or hours. Both work. Without one the search runs until exhaustion rather than until sufficiency.
03
Take the first that clears
Not the best so far. The first that meets the written threshold. Stop searching at that point.
04
Handle the exhausted budget
If the budget runs out with nothing clearing, the threshold was wrong or the market is worse than you thought. Lower it deliberately and in writing rather than drifting.
05
Do not look back
Checking what you would have found is a cost with no benefit on a decision already made. It is also the main source of regret in an otherwise sound process.

Characteristic failure mode

A threshold that moves. Each good option raises the bar, so nothing ever clears it and the method becomes maximising with extra steps and more regret.

Worked example

Someone is looking for a flat in a tight market.

01Threshold written first: under £1,300, under 35 minutes to work, separate bedroom, allows a 12-month break clause.
02Budget: three weekends of viewing.
03Seventh viewing clears all four. Taken.

Result

Twelve more flats existed. One may have been better. The search would have cost four more weekends, and the decision was reversible in twelve months.

Where this disagrees with another method

vs. Weighted scoring matrix →

They answer different questions. Score when the options differ substantially and the decision is expensive; satisfice when they are similar and the search is the main cost.

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