Psychologyspeaking topic
Maximizers and satisficers: some people can't stop until they find 'the best', others pick 'good enough' and relax. The maximizers end up with objectively better outcomes, so why are they less happy?
— Herbert Simon, satisficing vs maximizing
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The hot-cold empathy gap: why can't we predict our hungry self when we're full, or our angry self when we're calm? How does our current emotional state block us from foreseeing our future decisions?
- Young children constantly mix up 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', because time words are abstract. Curiously, most languages map time onto space: past behind us, future ahead. But some do the reverse and place the past in front, because you can 'see' it. Why can't we think about time at all without assigning it a direction we've never actually seen?
- A child who learns the word 'foot' finds it strange at first that a table has feet too, then takes it for granted. Language projects our body onto everything: the foot of a mountain, the eye of a needle, the neck of a bottle. Why must we understand the world by first mapping it onto our own body?
- The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.
- The availability heuristic: why do we think things are more likely just because examples come easily to mind? How does this explain being afraid to fly right after news of a plane crash?