What it means
To squeeze maximum advantage out of a system by maximising what helps and minimising everything else, often at the cost of balance. Started with gamers building lopsided characters, now applies to anyone optimising life ruthlessly: min-maxing a diet, a commute, a tax return.
Usage examples
"He min-maxes his mornings down to the minute, it is exhausting to watch."
"Dumping everything into attack and no defence is classic min-maxing."
"She's min-maxed her whole flat so hard there's one fork, one chair, and a spreadsheet for tea bags."
"Mate's min-maxing the holiday again, cheapest flights, no sleep, thirty tabs open, absolute gremlin behaviour."
Where it comes from
It comes straight out of tabletop and computer RPG culture. Players talked about min-maxing when they pushed the useful stats as high as possible and let the weaker ones rot. From there it escaped the character sheet and got used for any hyper-optimised way of doing life.
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