The Apple-Taking Strategy I Forgot - and How ChatGPT Reminded Me
Tags: chatgpt, ai, productivity
Published: 2022-12-22 21:09:31

I am sitting at my home, excited about starting a blog series and I come up with some ideas. Amongst them, I want to write about a decision-making strategy I have recently been trying to incorporate more into my life. The problem is I don't know anything about decision-making strategies other than what is the idea behind this particular one.

The idea (or to the extent I remember) was that if I am to pick between some apples and I am left with a few apples that seem to be good, I should just pick one! Because, at this point, any lousy apple that would possibly make me regret the decision would be out of the question. It would either smell bad, look rotten, or has a sign on it that says, "I am poisoned by a witch."

To get an in-depth idea about this decision-making strategy I read years ago, I am trying Google with a few keywords. Some partial sentences, a bit more keywords, a bit less of them... All I am left with is some general pages about decision-making strategies, Apple support page... and pretty much that's it. And I tell you, as a dedicated Google user, I am reasonably OK with getting what I want from Google.

So like every other breathing techie on the planet right at the moment, I am thinking whether ChatGPT could help me or not. Spoiler alert: It can.

Here is the conversation we had with ChatGPT, I have cropped the answers that I am not interested in, to keep the screenshots less boring.


![first recording of the chat](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yi45e5762lslc1w7j06q.png)

Well, at first, he seemed to not give me what I wanted, probably my great(!) explanation didn't help as well. Then, I gave it a couple of more tries:


![second recording of the chat](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/47nv4tewgl5nh37jm8q2.png)

This wasn't the response I was looking for, but I decided to give it one more try and remember the third time is a charm...


![third recording of the chat](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/usm0q1boksvvfn5iljj8.png)

And voila! I am not sure at this point whether the idea I read years ago was just an example of "Satisficing" strategy, or it was inspired by it, but for me, it is as good as it gets to name this strategy in my mind. And the explanation that ChatGPT made... I guess the main point of this blog post is "taken over" by ChatGPT.

## So... How "Satisficing" can help you in your life?

Making a decision is hard, it takes energy, and unless you are a heart surgeon or a president of a country, many decisions you make are not that important...

Easy to say these, however I often find myself lost between so many choices, let it be what to eat, which gadget to buy, which app to download or which technology to use for the next project. Luckily, I have recently been trying to take quick decisions, trying to have more of a "Satisficing" mindset. And I must tell you it made my life easier, less stressful and more productive.

> "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
\- Theodore Roosevelt

Now, instead of thinking/trying for half an hour which design tool to use for my little logo in the blog, and getting tired because of it, I just choose the first one that has some popularity, has a good price for me to pay, and looks appealing to my eyes.

I don't think I will ever stop trying to be a quick decision maker, and maybe next time you are making a little choice, you can decide to take the good enough apple rather than spending hours to find your dream apple.