We are all kind of obsessed with more. It is a weird biological glitch. Whether it is the data storage on your phone or the number of followers on an app that won't exist in three years, the human brain isn't naturally wired to recognize when something is sufficient. We are built for scarcity. Our ancestors had to gorge on calories because they didn't know when the next mammoth would show up, but now we live in a world where the "mammoth" is delivered to our door in thirty minutes via an app. This shift has turned our internal "enough" meter into a flickering, unreliable mess.
Honestly, the word "sufficient" sounds boring. It sounds like a "C" grade in high school. But if you talk to minimalist experts like Joshua Becker or look at the psychological concept of "satisficing" introduced by Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, you start to realize that finding the point of sufficiency is actually the ultimate life hack for your mental health.
Why We Struggle to Define What Is Sufficient
Most people confuse "sufficient" with "mediocre." That is a massive mistake.
In economics and decision theory, Simon argued that humans don't have the cognitive bandwidth to find the absolute "best" or "optimal" choice for every single thing. Instead, we should be "satisficing"—a portmanteau of satisfy and suffice. Basically, it means looking at your options and picking the one that meets your threshold of need. Once you hit that threshold, you stop looking. You stop scrolling. You just move on with your life.
But we don't do that. We "maximize."
Maximizers are the people who spend four hours reading reviews for a toaster. They need the absolute best. Research from psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, shows that while maximizers might technically end up with "better" stuff, they are generally unhappier, more anxious, and more prone to regret than people who just look for what is sufficient.
Think about your last vacation. Did you enjoy the beach, or were you constantly checking your phone to see if there was a "better" beach three miles down the road? If the beach you were on was sufficient for a good time, why were you looking for more?
The Sufficient Calorie Myth and Biology
Let's get into the weeds of health for a second. We talk about "sufficient nutrition" like it is a static number on the back of a cereal box. It isn't.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is often misunderstood. It is not the "perfect" amount; it is the amount determined to be sufficient to prevent deficiency in 97% to 98% of healthy individuals. It is a floor, not a ceiling. But here is the kicker: our bodies have built-in signals like leptin, the hormone that tells your brain you have had enough to eat. In a world of ultra-processed foods, those signals get hijacked.
When you eat a bag of chips, your brain never gets the "sufficient" signal. The salt, sugar, and fat are engineered to keep you in a state of "more." You are literally fighting your own neurochemistry to find a stopping point.
Sufficient Wealth: The $75,000 Fallacy
You've probably heard that famous study from Princeton University (Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton) saying that happiness doesn't increase after you hit $75,000 a year.
Well, that's not entirely true anymore.
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More recent data, like the 2021 study by Matthew Killingsworth at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that experienced well-being can continue to rise with income well beyond that point. However, the rate of increase slows down significantly. This is the law of diminishing returns. The leap from $30,000 to $60,000 is life-changing. The leap from $300,000 to $330,000? It's barely a blip on the dopamine radar.
For most of us, "sufficient" wealth is actually about autonomy. It is the point where you no longer have to make choices based on survival. It is having enough in the bank to say "no" to a toxic boss or a soul-crushing project. That is the true sufficiency point, but we often blow past it because we start comparing our "sufficient" to someone else's "excess."
Technology and the "Good Enough" Principle
In the world of software and engineering, there is a concept called "Worse is Better," popularized by Richard P. Gabriel. It suggests that a system that is simple and sufficient has a better chance of surviving and spreading than a system that is complex and "perfect."
Look at the early days of the internet. It was clunky. It was slow. It was, by many technical standards, "worse" than established high-end networking systems. But it was sufficient for what people needed—sharing information—and its simplicity allowed it to scale.
We see this in our personal tech too. Do you really need the $1,200 smartphone with the camera that can see the craters on the moon? Or is the $400 model sufficient for taking photos of your cat and checking your email? We are sold "aspirational" tech, but we live "sufficient" lives. Most of the power in your devices goes completely unused. It is a waste of resources, a waste of money, and a waste of the rare earth minerals required to build the thing.
The Stoic Perspective on Having Enough
The Stoics were the original masters of sufficiency. Seneca once wrote, "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."
He wasn't saying you should live in a hole in the ground. He was saying that wealth is a tool, and like any tool, it has a specific purpose. If you have a hammer that is sufficient for driving nails, you don't need a gold-plated hammer. It won't drive the nails any better. In fact, you'll probably be so worried about scratching the gold that you'll stop building things altogether.
This applies to everything:
- Social circles: Do you need 500 "friends" or 3 sufficient, deep connections?
- Work: Is 40 hours of focused work sufficient, or are you doing 60 hours just for the "hustle" optics?
- Knowledge: At what point is your research sufficient to take action?
That last one is a big trap. We call it "procrastination via research." We keep consuming information, telling ourselves we don't know enough yet. But usually, we had sufficient information three hours ago. We are just scared to start.
How to Find Your Own Sufficient Point
It is not a magic number. It is a feeling of "the trade-off is no longer worth it."
Every time you pursue "more," you are trading something else. Usually, it is time, energy, or peace of mind. To find what is sufficient for you, you have to look at the cost of the "extra." If getting a 10% raise requires 30% more stress, is the current salary not sufficient?
Here is how you actually do this in real life:
Audit your "enough" points. Pick one area of your life this week—maybe it's your wardrobe or your kitchen gadgets. Ask yourself: "If I never bought another item in this category, would my life be functional and happy?" If the answer is yes, you have reached sufficiency.
Set artificial boundaries. If you are a maximizer, give yourself a time limit. You have 20 minutes to pick a hotel for your trip. Whatever you find in that time that meets your basic criteria (clean, good location, right price) is sufficient. Book it and close the tab.
Practice "temporary poverty." This is a Stoic trick. For one weekend, live on the bare minimum. Eat simple food, walk instead of drive, and avoid shopping. You will realize that your "sufficient" baseline is much lower than you think. This realization is incredibly freeing. It takes away the power that consumerism has over you.
Focus on utility over status. Ask: "What does this do for me?" versus "What does this say about me?" A ten-year-old car is often sufficient for transportation. It is only insufficient for status. Once you separate those two, your bank account will thank you.
Stop at 80%. In many areas of life, the last 20% of effort yields only 2% of the results. Whether it's cleaning the house or writing a report, ask if the 80% mark is sufficient. Often, it is. The extra polish is just for your ego, and your ego is a hungry ghost that is never satisfied.
Stop looking for the best. Start looking for the point where your needs are met and your joy is protected. That is the only version of sufficient that actually matters.
To move forward, identify one recurring purchase you make that is "extra" rather than "sufficient." Cut it for thirty days. Observe if your quality of life actually drops or if you just stop thinking about it after forty-eight hours. Most of the time, the "need" vanishes the moment the "option" is removed. Use that saved mental energy to focus on something that doesn't have a ceiling, like a hobby or a conversation with a friend. These are the things that actually fill you up.