I find myself and others spending too much time and energy maximizing everything. Or at least maximizing every decision. What is the best diet? What is the best workout program? What’s the best vacuum cleaner, or oven mitt?
This takes time, energy and mental focus. Plus it keeps us from doing or picking anything. It also introduces doubt. “Well that’s a pretty good oven mitt, but is it the best? I better spend another hour reading reviews.”
Most of us have heard of the 80/20 rule. You get 80% of your gains from 20% of your efforts. There are lots of corollaries where this 80/20 principle shows up, but for the purpose of this article, let’s use effort and gains.
Not the Best and Not the Worst.
If you aren’t getting any exercise, there are a lot of things in the 80% you could be doing to improve. You don’t need to find the absolute best workout for a body builder, or runner. That’s mastery, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.
Nor can you sit on your ass and do nothing. If you’ve identified you need to make a change, then doing nothing is an outcome. A bad one. There may be worse ones – going from the see-food diet to the candy diet – but generally doing something is better than nothing, and you are moving toward the 80%.
If you need to buy something, a tool or object that fits a purpose – even if that purpose is going to a party for an outfit – we live in a world where you can look at 500 options. You can get people who will tell you the minutia of difference between the regular and pro model.
Just pick the damn phone already.
There’s a point where you know you are not getting crap. Now pick something and get on with your life. Sure you may not have the greatest phone currently on the market, but you’ve got something that will more than meet your current needs.
I’m jumping around here, from dresses to hammers to phones. That’s on purpose because this excuse of maximization is everywhere. Their were two pies at my birthday party and someone could spend 10 minutes trying to pick the best one. Heck, choose both in that case.
There are other things we tell ourselves that push us to maximization. I recently upgraded my iPhone. Used to do this every time a new one came out, but then they just got a little bit better each time, so I generally will skip at least a generation. Then you have to pick a model, and I firmly believe they have voodoo shaman’s creating feature sheets and price points to make each level just enough better you think you need it. You need the best one. You don’t. When you hear yourself asking, “Is this one the best one for me?” remember this article. You’re maximizing.
Finally, Mastery.
Yes, in life there are times where you need the best. Figure out what those times are for you. They aren’t the same for everyone. I’m a novelist and I need the best writing software. Sure I could use a paper and pencil, but those 20% gains at the top of the scale can make a difference here.
A master knows what they need.
I just got an airbrush. Never used one before, and have just started painting minis. I watched all the pros videos where they compared different brushes. But I’m not a pro. I need something that doesn’t suck and won’t break the third time I fire it up. I bought my airbrush at Harbor Freight, and it’s fine for a beginner. When I hit its limits, then I’ll know what I need for an airbrush to be better or even, shudder, the best.
In the end I hope this article helps you notice when you are spending too much time on finding the best, and gets you to find something good enough. Then you can use your time, energy and mental focus on mastering the things that are truly essential.
P.S.
After writing this and discussing the concept with some friends I sat down to do the thing you do in the bathroom and grabbed The Pocket Guide To Action by Kyle Eschenroeder from The Art of Manliness. This is collection of short articles I find myself going back to. I gave to to my boys for Christmas. When I opened it there was an article entitled Satisfice, p 58. Where he discusses Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon postulation there are Maximizers and Saticficers. Guess which is happier?