Comments on: Are You a Maximizer or a Simplifier?

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:22:45 +0000

Thanks Kali

By: Kali

Kali — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:51:03 +0000

Interesting article, Scott I’m sorry I didn’t put this earlier, but, hey, I’m not perfect…………………………

By: David

David — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:26:55 +0000

Hello Scott,

Out of the two generalizations, I most definitely fall within the Simplifier category. But, my pitfall is the strength you recognized: the big-picture. I never really put any constraints of ‘how’ big the picture becomes. When I try to identify with a picture larger than life itself, I am rendered apathetic.

Long-term goals with large rewards mean very little to me, as I know that the temporal requirements bog me down, so I easily take the short-road, knowing I’ll enjoy quick payment.

By: blogrdoc

blogrdoc — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:13:00 +0000

I try not to think of myself as one or the other. I just listened to a good seminar on negotiation, and the case was made that during negotiation, adding “complexity” is better. Think about it in terms of creative problem solving and finding win/win solutions. These solutions are typically not “obvious” but, rather are arrived at by creatively satisfying a needs from multiple parties.

In general, complexity and/or parallel paths are effective as number of unknowns increase. The parallel paths are required for learning. Once the unknowns are solved, and things become more clear cut, it’s time to covert to a simplified, more automated method. My link gives a post I wrote on maximizing variation where it counts (learning mode), and minimizing it where it doesn’t (automation mode).

By: Mickey

Mickey — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:45:39 +0000

hey,

I often see-saw between being a maximizer and a simplifier. Sometimes, I sense that my life is too boring and not filled with enough meaning, so I push myself to meet new people, join activities, and do more, in general.

Then, sometimes, I go overboard and have too many things on my plate. I take a deep breath and say, “ok, I have to stay in for a few days and organize my life.”

At different stages in my life, I could lean towards one or the other. My first two years of college, I was a simplifier, the next three, a maximizer. I have to say my grades were better when I was the former, but I enjoyed life, in general, more with the latter.

Most people do tends towards one or the other if I think about it, but it seems I am one of those ambidextrous ones. With that comes a differents set of challenges than being one or the other.

By: Cal

Cal — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:21:00 +0000

Scott,

An excellent observation: context matters. From my vantage over at Study Hacks, working, as you note, with naturally ambitious young people, the definitions of “simplify” might be different in other situations.

This general topic, I think, couldn’t be more relevant to people our age…good stuff.

- Cal

By: imgriff.com » Blog Archiv » Der Link am Morgen: Maximierer oder Reduzierer?

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:25:34 +0000

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By: Basu

Basu — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:09:41 +0000

I try to adopt what you might term a reverse maximization approach: I add more to my workload abut only after I’ve cut away the unimportant things. I currently devote a lot of time to open source programming to teach myself things that I wouldn’t learn in a class, but that was only after I left the college debate realizing that i wouldn’t learn anything worthwhile from devoting my time to that.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:56:02 +0000

Think of it like dancing with the stars. You have talent/giftedness. In early adulthood, you are mastering the basic steps and see lots of progression. You develop confidence. Then you add a career, marriage, kids and the steps become much more complex – and when you fall, there’s a real possibility of serious damage so you focus on the mastering the hard parts. Somewhere between 40 and 50, you are the expert – you have a very clear idea of where you will peak. Then between 55 and 65, you are still doing the dance you built your reputation on but you are also learning a less physically demanding but equally beautiful retirement dance. And finally depending on your philosophy, you will either feel you have been voted off the dance floor or you will anticipate bringing all of your life experience together to dance with the stars.

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:34:31 +0000

In the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, the authors identify 34 strengths. I’ve been using that lens to analyze teams. Here’s what I noticed — among “achievers”, the “maximizers” amplify the impact of their effort. In other words, on my teams of achievers, they all produce results, but the maximizers tend to be more effective in overall impact — it’s the difference that makes the difference. In other words, the people on the team without the “maximizer” strength, tend to trade efficiency over effectiveness.

This really hit me when I noticed some people intuitively understood windows of opportunity, engaging the right people, building synergy, while others got their tasks done, but didn’t produce the same impact or overall outcomes. Once I noticed this, a lot of things fell into place and I could pair the right people up together for more effective results.

One thing I remind the “simplifiers” on my teams is, be efficient with things, but effective with people (a Covey’ism I’ve found serves them well)