How would you like to work at a podcast, young lady?

Is that the question?

I'm Angela Duckworth.

I'm Stephen Dubner.

And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

Today on the show, when it comes to decision making, is it better to maximize or satisfy?

Can I ask, is synonym for maximizer pain in the ass? Also, what is the ideal

interview question? Oh, I notice you've got a Philly's head on. Are you from Philadelphia? And then

all of a sudden, an hour's gone by and the interview's over. Angela Duckworth, I have a question for you today.

Shoot.

I want to know whether you are a maximizer or a satisfacer and why.

And while you answer, I want you to explain maximizing and satisfying where it comes from, what it means.

I am a maximizer.

I had a feeling.

Yeah, you knew me.

So that means that when it comes to my work, I am trying to do better and better and better.

That's what maximizers do.

They try to maximize.

Better and better and better compared to your previous self or better compared to other people?

Compared to my previous self. And I think that's generally what maximizers are trying to do. Basically, they're trying to optimize outcomes. And that's the intuitive answer, at least the way economists think about human beings making choices. Like, of course, you're trying to get the best ice cream cone, have the best

outcomes. But satisfying is a more recent idea. It comes from Nobel laureate Herb Simon. He won the

Nobel Prize for economics, but he was really more of a psychologist, decision scientist. And Simon

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