Satisficing

The brain can at times be a mechanical bull that we cling to with one grimy hand. Here, mechanics of modern convenience come into intimate, messy contact with biological and neurotic human behavior. This short film, Satisficing, explores compulsion and interjection in everyday routines.

“Satisficing” is a popular term that combines the verbs “to satisfy” and “to sacrifice,” to describe the act of prioritizing realism and momentum, over the exhaustive and paralytic pursuit of perfection. A ‘satisficer’ makes do and moves forward, steering toward survival.

In psychology, ‘satisficing’ pushes back against ‘maximizing,’ trading endless analysis for quick, workable decisions. In economics, ‘satisficing’ habits lean into bounded rationality, where material and information are always limited. In management, ‘satisficers’ champion progress over perfection. In evolutionary biology, ‘satisficers’ ensure survival by balancing resources and risk.

The nature of organisms — our connections, internal worlds, and the social and technological systems we create — are dependent on the satisficer model, in many ways for better and for worse. This film dives into how ‘satisficing’ contributes to the neurotic underbelly of the social unconscious inhabited by the individual. Are we perceived as messy and scary, by the technology we’ve created to clean us and soothe our fears? How does ‘satisficing’ converge with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and become more than the sum of their parts for the contemporary individual?

October 2022

Screenings: Pop-up: Screendance Showing Fall ’22