notes from liguria, italy

Are You a Maximiser or a Satisficer?

By Margherita Patrone - Aug 15, 2026 - 4 min read - Issue #7

Today is Ferragosto.The 15th of August is one of the biggest summer holidays in Italy. Cities empty, families gather, people head to the sea, and in places like Liguria, it feels as though everyone has decided to go on holiday at exactly the same time.But growing up in a tourist town gave me a slightly different relationship with this day.For many of my friends and their families, Ferragosto was not a holiday at all.It was work.Restaurants were full. Hotels were full. Beaches were full. People working in tourism would wake up early, finish late and do it all again the following morning.August was not the month to slow down.It was the month that mattered.I remember watching this rhythm as a child. Summer arrived and everything accelerated. Then, almost suddenly, it disappeared.The beaches emptied.Restaurants shortened their opening hours.Some places closed completely.Winter arrived and life became quiet again.Today, my life has very little of that seasonality.I work with international clients, so July and August can sometimes be quieter, although this year has been rather different. The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I finished work very late last night, tired but also happy that somehow everything that needed to get done got done.And this morning, on Ferragosto, I found myself thinking about the people around me whose busiest period is only just beginning.There is something about seasonal work that I have always found fascinating.It can be incredibly demanding. There are months when you work more than you would ever want to.But then there can also be months when you work very little.And what interests me most is what happens in those quieter months.I know people here who do not immediately rush to fill that space.They don't necessarily look for another job, another project, another way to squeeze more productivity out of the year.Sometimes, after a good summer, the answer is simply:This is enough.They spend more time at home.They cook.They see friends.They work in the garden.They go for walks when the beaches are empty again.Life gets smaller and slower.Not because they lack ambition, but because perhaps they don't expect every season to give them the same thing.It made me think about a concept from behavioural science: maximising and satisficing.A maximiser tends to search for the best possible outcome.The best choice. The highest return. The most productive use of time.A satisficer looks for an option that meets what they need and, when they find it, allows the search to end.I smiled when I first came across the word satisficer. It sounds almost wrong.We are much more familiar with maximising.More money.More opportunities.More experiences.More progress.Even rest can become something we try to optimise.Did I exercise enough? Read enough? Travel somewhere interesting enough? Make good enough use of my weekend?There is always the possibility of more.And perhaps that is why I find the rhythm of the people I grew up around so interesting.Their lives are not necessarily slow.In August, they can be anything but slow.The difference is that intensity is allowed to have an end.A very busy season does not automatically have to be followed by another very busy season.Sometimes winter is simply winter.Perhaps there is wisdom in that.Nature certainly doesn't seem embarrassed by it.An olive tree does not spend January worrying that it should be producing more olives.There is a season for growing, a season for producing and a season when very little appears to be happening at all.Yet none of it is wasted.I am not sure I want to stop being a maximiser. There are parts of me that love ambition, possibility and seeing how far something can grow.But I am becoming increasingly interested in knowing when to stop.When something is good.When I have done enough.When the day has given me what it had to give.Maybe a good life isn't about choosing between ambition and simplicity.Maybe it is learning to recognise which season you are in.When was the last time you allowed something to be enough, instead of asking yourself how you could make it more?Until next Saturday,
Margherita