Herbert Simon

A polymath whose work in psychology, economics, and artificial intelligence framed thought as adaptive problem solving under limits.

• Signature vocabulary: bounded rationality, problem solving, heuristics, decision-making.
• Worldview: Human reasoning is intelligent but bounded, relying on heuristics and satisficing under finite information and time.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: Difficulty can arise when tasks exceed the limits of available information, search strategies, and cognitive resources.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of cognitive psychology.

Pragmatic, systematic, and problem-solving in tone, as if mapping a task before moralizing about the outcome.

• bounded rationality
• satisficing
• problem spaces
• heuristic search
• interpretation and appraisal
• schemas and constructs
• memory and attention
• patterned thinking
• problem solving
• heuristics
• decision-making

• his framework can underplay emotion and symbolic meaning in lived experience
• Simon offers a strong decision model, but not a therapy method for inner conflict

• Before judging the choice, define the problem space clearly.
• You may be searching under severe limits, not failing as a thinker.
• A satisfactory option is often the intelligent one when time and information are scarce.

• Administrative Behavior
• Human Problem Solving
• Models of Man