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The Big Story: Why Lowering Our Standards Might Be the Key To Happiness

I couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday. My apartment keys are probably in the freezer. But I read one article a few years back and I think about it almost daily.

The piece introduced the concept of satisficers and maximizers—two archetypes for how people make decisions. If you haven’t heard these terms before, here’s the breakdown.

Satisficers tend to have a Minimum Viable Happiness (MVH) mindset, meaning they optimize for a reasonable baseline of joy, fulfillment, or contentment. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Put another way, satisficers:

• Have a mental checklist—if something meets their core needs, boom, decision made.

• Don’t overanalyze or second-guess.

• Move on quickly because once the criteria have been met, they’re good.

Maximizers, on the other hand:

• Need to be sure they’re making the best choice.

• Research everything, compare endlessly, and hesitate before locking in.

• Often feel like there’s something better they could have picked.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz, in The Paradox of Choice (2004), argues that having too many options is making us miserable. Maximizers are more stressed and less satisfied. Even when they make a great choice, they wonder if they could have done better. Satisficers, who commit to MVH, experience less FOMO and more contentment.

The crazy thing is that Schwartz wrote all this BEFORE we all had Instagram on our phones. Social media and the internet can push these tendencies to the extreme.

For maximizers, the internet is an infinite comparison trap. Every day, you see curated images, expert recommendations, and success stories, reinforcing the idea that something better is out there. It’s also an unending rabbit hole for research. Maximization mode never turns off.

For satisficers, the internet pushes herd behavior. When your entire feed is obsessed with the same memes, crypto coins, or career moves, it’s easy to follow along with the loudest voices instead of making choices that actually fit you.

There are clear pros and cons to the Minimum Viable Happiness mindset. Like the ‘MVP’ model in product development, MVH is a great strategy in certain stages and situations—but not all. It works when you need to move quickly, avoid decision paralysis, and iterate as you go. But apply it in the wrong scenario, and you’re setting yourself up for issues.

• Where MVH works: Everyday choices, low-stakes decisions, or when you’re stuck in analysis paralysis. It gets you moving.

• Where MVH doesn’t work: Big, high-impact decisions that require long-term commitment—like setting a long-term strategy, saving for a house, or (gulp) finding a life partner.

That said, MVH can be useful as a first step. Just like in product launches, you don’t need to perfect every detail before going live—you can optimize later. Sometimes, getting past indecision is the most important thing.

So, who does it better? Should we all just settle? While satisficers tend to be happier, this isn’t an argument that maximizing is bad. It’s a spectrum, and there are trade-offs. Satisficers are great at quick fixes, adjusting on the fly, and not getting stuck. Maximizers put in the work upfront, make the best possible decision once, and have fewer messes to clean up.

I’m aggressively a satisficer in most areas of my life, but there are times when I have to push myself to maximize—certain work projects, high-stakes decisions, anything that requires deeper analysis. Type A “work” person, type B “life” person.

The way I see it: life’s too short to second-guess what type of steak you order at dinner. But maybe not how you allocate your 401K.

Daily Rip Live Recap: Some Green to Go With All That Red, Intel Has a New CEO, and Tarrifying News if You Like Veuve

Every weekday, Shay Boloor and I run down the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. Here’s what we recently covered.

• Little baby bounce: The Dow jumped 650 points on Friday, but it was a pretty crappy consolation prize. Last week was the worst week to be in the stock market since 2023, but if you want to feel better, just zoom out to the 5Y view!

• Champagne problems: The White House is now threatening to tariff French wines and other European spirits a dizzying 200%. Yep, they’re coming for our bar tabs now! Bullish news for everyone’s favorite CVS wine “product,” Chateau Diana. (BTW, fun fact: It’s widely believed that Taylor Swift wrote the song “Champagne Problems” after visiting the Notre Dame dorm that her brother lived in, which is also where I attended my very first college party.)

• DOGE is coming for SaaS: My co-host Shay pointed out that one area to watch with DOGE cutbacks to government spending is software. If a company uses language like, "we lost a client in a recurring, high-margin side of our business," that could be corporate BS for “Elon Musk came for our Docusign seats.” | CLIP

• Intel is bringing in the big guns. $INTC ( ▼ 6.7% ) just appointed a new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, who they hope will steer the company into the AI future. I spent about 3 minutes with this guy’s Wikipedia page and he appears to be an absolute G: He has a nuclear engineering degree from MIT, founded a VC firm named Walden based on his admiration of Thoreau, and most recently was CEO and exec chairman at Cadence, a chip design company.

• More beverage M&A? Reports surfaced that Pepsi $PEP ( ▼ 1.43% ) is in talks to acquired Poppi for $1.5 billion. This comes just weeks after Celsius $CELH ( ▼ 1.24% ) picked up Alani-Nu for its own portfolio. (I’m still a La Croix gal myself, which — by the way — trades under the very fun ticker $FIZZ ( ▼ 1.05% ) .

Finally, everyone was quoting this take from JP Morgan’s Michael Cembalest explaining why the equity markets are not loving the administration’s first 50 days at the helm. Josh Brown even read it out loud on TV, and then someone set it to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” $JPM ( ▼ 0.45% )  

Hear Shay and I yap about the markets every weekday at 9 a.m. ET on X (@stocktwits), YouTube, LinkedIn, or in your Stocktwits app. Follow me there — I’m @stocktwitsKP!

Now Here’s a Chart

Ths is an absolute doozy from Renaissance Macro Research: “The big news in the UMich data was not inflation expectations. Look at what people are saying about the jobs market! Expected change in unemployment worst since the 2008 recession. No one is asking for a raise in this environment.”

Reading List

• Top Trump official blames ‘Michigan people’ for souring consumer confidence survey (Yahoo! Finance) — Lol, this guy go to Ohio State?

• Gold price rises above $3,000 an ounce for first time amid economic uncertainty (Fox Business)

• As JPMorgan Chase enforces a 5-day RTO, staffers complain about too few desks, spotty Wi-Fi, and sneezing, sick coworkers (Fortune)

• Spirit Airlines emerges from bankruptcy with plans to attract affluent travelers (USA Today)

• Profitable Klarna files for a potentially blockbuster IPO (TechCrunch)

🎧 Now playing: “English Girls Approximately” - Ryan Adams

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

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Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.