Hey Reader

If you were on a bus and realised you were going the wrong way, would you get off at the next stop, or just keep going?

On one hand, getting off the bus immediately requires a little bit of discomfort.

Maybe you have to have an awkward conversation with the driver or, at the very least, you have to get up from where you're sitting.

Continuing on will certainly save you from that, but it comes with its own set of negatives.

The further you let the bus take you, the further you're getting from where you actually wanted to be.

Not only this, but if you eventually decide to get off the bus later, it's going to cost you more time (and likely money) to get back to where you started and then where you actually hoped to go.

Don't worry, I'm not going to spend this whole email talking about buses 😝

But I do love the analogy for what I actually want to discuss with you 👀

The idea - The "sunk cost fallacy"

When we're reluctant to change course or abandon a strategy because we already invested in starting and maintaining it, this is the sunk cost fallacy at work.

The "sunk cost" is the resources that have already been used in undertaking a particular course of action.

This could be our time, effort, energy and sometimes even money, or often it's a combination of them.

The "fallacy" is when we let our previously spent resources justify further "spending".

People have a greater tendency to continue an endeavour once they're invested time, effort, or money, even when that endeavour isn't aligned with what they want.

In the case of our bus example, it's staying on the bus even though it's going in the wrong direction because:

Usually we can identify that we've fallen victim to the sunk cost fallacy if the main reason for continuing is just because we don't want to "waste" the resources we've already spent.

We end up ignoring or downplaying the benefits of making a change or quitting something entirely because we've already done so much, come so far, or spent...a lot 😛

We keep pouring more resources into a course of action that we know isn't going to be fruitful or satisfying, just because we've already been doing so.

That is unless we decide to say "enough is enough" and make a change.

The Living Dex

An example of the sunk cost fallacy is one that Vogel recently identified for himself.

As a long-time player of Pokémon, he has spent countless leisure hours dedicated to maintaining what is called a Living Dex, or a full index/collection of all Pokémon that have been released.

This has taken him hours upon hours to not just set up initially, but also to maintain with each new generation of Pokémon released.

Sure, initially there were benefits to having this complete collection, and for a time it was fun to collect and order them.

But not anymore.

Vogel's decided that just because he's spent a lot of time making and maintaining his Living Dex, this doesn't mean he has to keep up with it.

At this point in his Pokémon playing journey, keeping the Living Dex doesn't spark joy.

The outcome isn't worth the effort, and his future resources (mainly time) will be better spent in other ways.

Good work, Vogel!

Jess vs the sunk cost fallacy

I've fallen victim to this one a couple of times 😅

But I'm getting better!

Some of the examples I have are:

• Kept eating a meal I wasn't enjoying just because it cost money
• Stayed friends with someone who lowkey treated me poorly just because we'd been friends for so long
• Continued using a monthly setup or layout I hated just because it took a long time to draw out
• I already have every other pen in this set that I don't use, so I might as well get the newly released colours (looking at you, Mildliners 👀)

The sunk cost fallacy can show up in a lot of life areas, but the first step towards making a change is just identifying where we're letting it dictate our next moves.

Let's take action

To check whether you are falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy, ask yourself the questions below:

There are so many spaces it can show up in, and I'd be curious to hear where you've found it in your life.

Hit reply and let me know 😄

Until next time!

- Jess

Sick of setting goals that don't get achieved? Learn the system everyday goal-getters are using to make EPIC things happen.