The Sunk Cost Fallacy: A Detailed Guide to Smarter Decisions
Introduction Why do smart people keep funding failing projects, sit through bad movies, or stay in unfulfilling jobs simply because they’ve “already invested so much”? The answer is the sunk cost fallacy: our tendency to let past, unrecoverable investments influence present choices that should be based only on future costs and benefits. This article offers a detailed, practical guide to understanding and avoiding sunk cost errors. We’ll cover the psychology behind the fallacy, when considering past investments is actually rational, and provide checklists, case studies, and code examples to help you make cleaner, forward-looking decisions in business and life. ...