Good Enough Beats Best

August 11, 2004

Swarthmore College is a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. Each year the graduating seniors elect a faculty member to address them during commencement weekend. This year they chose Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.

There are, said Schwartz, two types of people:

• maximisers want "the best college, the best job, the best romantic partner, the best car, the best stereo, the best investment, and yes, the best jeans";
• satisficers are willing to settle for "good enough."

Schwartz's advice: if you want to be happy, be a satisficer.

He cited a study of 600 college seniors searching for jobs:

"We found that the starting salary of maximizers was $7,000 more than the starting salary of satisficers. But ... and it's a big but, maximizers reported themselves to be more pessimistic, more stressed, more tired, more anxious, more worried, more overwhelmed, more regretful, more disappointed, more frustrated, and more depressed than satisficers were. And, they were less satisfied with the jobs they ended up getting. Maximizers did better, but they felt worse."

But aren't we meant to shoot for the very best? Don't we risk mediocrity if we settle for "good enough"?

The trouble is that we don't take the time to work out for ourselves what really matters - so we spend a good part of our lives striving to succeed mightily in areas where good enough would do just fine. Hence Schwartz's maxim: Only be a maximiser when it matters.

Barry Schwartz's wise speech is set out in full in the latest issue of Martin Seligman's ezine. Read it.

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