Long time no see! You may or may not have noticed my hiatus for the last few weeks. With my travels, finals, interviews, a minor concussion and a family emergency, there’s been a lot on my mind lately and it’s been hard to find the time and mental space to write. But I’m back!
Satisficing
sat·is·fice (/ˈsadəsˌfīs/) - v. accept an available option as satisfactory.
When I first discovered the idea of satisficing, I was elated. As a serial procrastinator who hated to get less than 10 hours of sleep a night, high school Nikhil found the idea of identifying and reaching a satisfactory point on a project or studying ideal. Going into every project, I would begin to brainstorm ambitious ideas. Immediately after, I would reduce the scope of the project as soon as possible. My goal was to create something that would still seem impressive but would require significantly less work. I would continuously remind myself of the classic maxim “work smarter, not harder” and pride myself in my satisfactory work.
This trend continued into college, especially as I started to work on more open-ended projects in my major-specific classes. With some of my classes, I’d often find myself figuring out which of my existing skills I could lean on in order to be able to create an impressive and satisfactory project that would get me an A. Specifically, I would avoid those projects that would force me to learn new skills or push the envelope. For example, in my graphic design classes, I would focus on using my existing illustration skills and writing skills to make my project seem more polished than it was, rather than trying to actually learn how to use Photoshop properly. This was good in some ways. It afforded me the free time to build up important skills for my intended career path, have more time to socialize, and get more of those sweet, sweet Zs (8 hours or bust, baby!).
It was the moments that I worked with truly ambitious peers that I realized what I was missing out on when satisficing. On a recent final project, I worked with my roommate Travis on a weird, trippy music video meant to ooze nostalgia (don’t watch if you have epilepsy). The premise was that we would incorporate a bunch of different videos from our past with overlays of music visualizers from iTunes and Windows Movie Maker that we had used as kids. Like any good Tech students, we started our project less than 48 hours before it was due, and finished it with roughly 6 hours to spare. As we closed in on finishing the video, I started to yearn for the soft embrace of my bed. This meant that I began to get lazy about some of the cuts I was making on my video, thinking that no one would really notice in the mess of everything else. Meanwhile, Travis was still willing to spend 20 minutes on making each cut perfect, lining up the music and video with the utmost precision. His attention to detail was untouched by the wariness, since creating something to his standard was more important.
When comedian Jon Stewart left The Daily Show, he decided to leave because he started making decisions out of laziness. When he realized that he wasn’t constantly trying to push out the best work at all times, Stewart decided that it was time for someone else to take over the helm of the institution that he had built up. Hearing about this was jarring for me, as it made me begin thinking about how many decisions I would make on a daily basis based on laziness.
Going forward, I aim to make fewer decisions out of laziness, following ambition over what’s reasonable. Satisficing is an important skill to have in school and beyond, but if I truly want to grow as a creative, I need to grow past my habit and get used to the discomfort. This newsletter is the first of many creative projects where I don’t make decisions out of laziness. I re-worded most of the sentences, knowing that it would lead to me sending it out late. I have to start somewhere.
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Article
“The Last Curious Man” by Drew Magary - it took me a few days to read through this feature on Anthony Bourdain. It’s painful, powerful, and human, and reading it is an entire experience. I recommend you check it out to understand the legacy of a great man, gone too soon.
Film
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - you know I always come with only the most highbrow film suggestions. I had a lot of fun watching this. I loved the melodrama of the original Teen Titans but seeing my favorite characters as cartoonish caricatures who were extremely self-aware was just as fun..
Playlist
november 18 - another month, another playlist. There’s a lot more hip hop in here than before, plus some lo-fi beats and ambient music. It’s also 40 songs, so pretty long by my standards as well.
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below).
Love,
Nikhil