Satisficing
Satisficing is a decision strategy developed by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon in 1956 that involves searching through available alternatives until one meets a pre-defined acceptability threshold — and then stopping, rather than continuing to search for the optimal choice. Simon coined the term by combining 'satisfying' and 'sufficing.' It reflects his observation that bounded rationality — the cognitive and informational limits on human decision-making — makes optimization impractical for most real-world decisions. Satisficing is not settling; it is the rational response to the cost of optimization.