Have you ever felt that:
- You find the movie is not good and painfully boring, but you feel kind of wasted your money for the ticket, so you just continue watching…
- Eat ’til drop, and like you want to throw it up (because your stomach is so full!) at the All You Can Eat Restaurant or Hotel Buffett because you feel that it is such a total waste if you’re only eating a little, the amount of money that we spent is the same if we ate that much!
- Our project, business, or investment isn’t going anywhere. Stuck. Even failed. But we kept holding it, simply because we’ve already put so much money into it. Even when a thorough analysis shows it’s unlikely to bounce back..
- Keep in touch with those toxic friends just because you feel bad for them if you just let them go since you guys have known each other for such a long time. So many memories that you have already created. But deep down, you know that the friendship isn’t in good shape. Unhealthy. You already know that kind of friendship didn’t get you anywhere. Moreover, it didn’t help us to become better and forward person.
- Or, maybe you keeping old, worn-out furniture at home just because you’re emotionally attached or feel bad letting it go?
- Etc, which is similar.
I did. And I guess we are ever in the same boat on this one. Because this is a common logical fallacy. This is what we call the “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” aka being misled by the costs we’ve already spent. This is not efficient, let alone rational, you just spent so much time wasting your energy, money, and also feelings.
Recently, I went to see a movie in a cinema with my husband, and guess what, after 30 minutes, we were so done with it. We couldn’t stop yawning. Like, it was freaking boring. I tried to get into it, try to find the sweet spot since I’m a major movie fan, but in the end, I gave up. I just couldn’t hack it. So, I told my hubby to let it slide and instantly flew out of there. I don’t want to surrender to that logical fallacy. I won’t sacrifice my precious time and energy just because I’ve already spent a couple of bucks. I simply don’t enjoy it. And the wisest thing I could do is just let it go.
It was just because I’d already read a book called “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli. It’s a great book, by the way, one of my favorites. I’ve read it four times! Yeah, you heard me right! Every time I dive into it, I feel a bit clueless because it really points out all the mistakes I’ve made in life just because I didn’t think of my actions and choices so clearly. The difference between how I used to think and how I think now is huge. Definitely got some lessons from it!.
In that book, Dobelli describes “The Sunk Cost Fallacy” as a common decision-making error that occurs when we continue investing in something even when it’s no longer rational, simply because we’ve already invested time, money, or effort into it. He argues that this is irrational thinking because those costs are already “sunk”. They’re gone, and nothing we do now will bring them back. The logical choice is to make decisions based on the future benefits vs. future costs – not what we’ve already spent.
“The sunk cost fallacy is most dangerous when we have invested a lot of time, money, energy, or love in something. This investment becomes a reason to carry on, even if we are dealing with a lost cause.” – Rolf Dobelli.
This is a warning from him, We’ll likely gonna end up falling for that logical fallacy once we’ve put everything he talked about! So, every time we come across this, we have to be very careful, stay alert, and not be trapped! Try to think and act rationally, cut our losses early, make better decisions, and avoid throwing more good money (or time or energy) for bad. Because if we continue to do it, we’re the ones losing it all in the end. Surely, we won’t let it happen!
Love,
Kirana
