Flash Post: Lagom
The best is often infeasible. Try satisficing instead. Try lagom.
For example, suppose you want to buy a very large new house. You want over 15,000 square feet. You want it designed by a famous architect. You desire a yard the size of a football field. You fancy a tennis court, and basketball court, a bowling alley, and a view of the ocean. You want the house built to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane. You desire that it be stocked with all the best appliances and furniture. You wish for a house that is the envy of all your neighbors. Yet you want the power bill to be inexpensive, the cleaning to be quick and easy, and you have only $200K to spend. It’s probably not gonna happen!
But there’s another option: a quite satisfactory house, given your needs, is available for $200K. You’d be content in this house. You’d flourish here.
The voice of wisdom says: “Don’t hanker after the mansion you can’t have. Take and enjoy the house you can possess and maintain. With a bit of self-control and (axiological) combinatorial optimization, you can find the best fit for your situation.”
“Le mieux est le mortel ennemi du bien.” (The best is the mortal enemy of the good.)
Consider an instructive case from history. According to Diogenes Laertius, Socrates “had no need to travel, except when required to go on an expedition.” Moreover, “Alcibiades once offered him a large site on which to build a house; but he replied, ‘Suppose, then, I wanted shoes and you offered me a whole hide to make a pair with; would it not be ridiculous for me to take it?’ Often when he looked at the multitude of wares exposed for sale, he would say to himself, ‘How many things I can do without!’ And he would continually recite the lines:
The purple robe and silver's shine
More fits an actor's need than mine.”