✈️👟🧠 Satisficing: How a Dating Book and Stan Smith Helped Me Live Better & Travel Smarter

✈️ From Audiobooks to Airplanes: How Logan Ury Helped Me Stop Overthinking Everything

I didn’t expect a dating book to change how I book hotels or choose movies on planes—but that’s exactly what happened.

On a whim, I started listening to the audiobook How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury. What began as casual background noise quickly turned into a full-blown mindset shift. Her breakdown of decision-making styles—Maximizers vs. Satisficers—hit me good. Not a gentle nudge, more like a gut punch. No, scratch that—more like getting knocked upside the head with the force of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

🧠 The Maximizer Trap

Maximizers, Ury explains, are people who chase the best possible option. They research endlessly, compare every detail, and often feel regret—even after making a decision. More on Maximizers below in the “The Scroll of Shame…” Satisficers, on the other hand, aim for good enough. They set clear criteria, make a choice that meets them, and move on. No spiraling. No second-guessing.

Her examples—a coffee maker and a movie on a plane—were so simple, yet so enlightening. I realized I’ve been a Maximizer in more areas than I’d like to admit.

🏨 Hotel Tabs and Travel Stress

With an upcoming adventure on the horizon, I found myself deep in hotel-booking mode. Multiple cities, multiple stays, and my usual routine: opening dozens of tabs, reading every review, zooming in on maps, and still feeling unsure. Exhausting.

Then I remembered Ury’s coffee maker story. I decided to try satisficing. I set a few must-haves (clean, safe, decent location), found a hotel that met those, and booked it. Then repeated the process for each stop. Done. No second-guessing. And honestly? It felt liberating.

🎬 The Scroll of Shame, Interrupted

On a recent flight, I was settling in and preparing for the dreaded airplane movie scroll of shame—endlessly browsing, hoping for the perfect film. But Ury’s example came to mind: people often enjoy movies on planes more when they don’t overthink the choice.

So I stopped scrolling immediately when I saw Who Is Stan Smith? and clicked. I already knew Stan Smith as the name behind the iconic Adidas sneakers (I own multiple pairs), but I didn’t know his full story. The film was fantastic—thoughtful, inspiring, and beautifully told. Damn, he’s a great guy too. 👟 Highly recommend.

🌱 A New Way to Choose

These small moments—booking hotels and picking a movie—became unexpected reflections of a bigger shift. I’m learning that satisficing isn’t settling. It’s trusting. Trusting that “good enough” can be great. That joy doesn’t always come from perfection. And that sometimes, the best experiences are the ones we don’t over-engineer.

All thanks to a dating book I took a chance on because the title made me laugh—and I wasn’t even sure I’d finish.

📚 Curious? Grab the book here. 👇

🌟If you’re new here—welcome. Poke around. Hopefully you’ll find more content that resonates. And if you’re a Gen-Xer sensing some quiet shifts in your priorities, you might enjoy this reflection:

👇 What We Outgrow: Why Aging Smarter Often Means Living Simpler—and Abroad