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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." (George Bernard Shaw)

But are those really different classes of people? Isn't everyone a maximizer up to a point where they think "good enough"? Where that limit changes between people, and for each person probably depending on area of interest, area of expertise, and so on?

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I see it much more being a mindset. Either you approach everything with the goal of improving it, or you approach everything with the goal of finding a works-and-is-good-enough solution. One is about maximizing quality and another about minimizing effort.

Since it’s a mindset, you can define it as different classes of people.

What I’ve observed is that the ones that are minimizing effort in the area you care about (tech as we talk about here), are doing it as a conscious choice to free themselves up for another area of life they value higher. Could be kids, could be something else.

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