How Hard Decisions Become Easy Choices
In reviewing Scott Adams’ brilliant book on self-improvement, I came to really admire the idea offered below about simplifiers and optimizers:
Some people are what I call simplifiers and some are optimizers. A simplifier will prefer the easy way to accomplish a task, while knowing that some amount of extra effort might have produced a better outcome. An optimizer looks for the very best solution even if the extra complexity increases the odds of unexpected problems.
I want to take this at face value and start categorizing people in these two camps. But I can’t. It’s not that neat and clean. The truth is that no one is wholly a simplifier or wholly an optimizer. We are both. We each possess the ability and desire to simplify in some situations and optimize in others. We regularly teeter between the two poles.
When are we simplifiers?
When are we optimizers?
We simplify when we work with the familiar. We optimize when we work with something new. Look no further than the way a new hire behaves in their first week on the job. They tend to optimize, doing everything the best the can, staying on high alert for every suggestion, request, or need. Over time, this changes. The new hire becomes an experienced veteran who can see through the noise and pick out the two or three things…
