TMD: Yesterday’s news today!
MG: Calling quits
The sensible course might be to give up. With all the hubbub about showing perseverance and grit, about achieving your dreams—as former poker pro Annie Duke tells Russ Roberts—knowing when to abandon a pursuit is often more valuable still.
How do you know when enough is enough, though? Annie tells the story of the Everest climbing team that was just within reach of the summit and persevered to get to the top—and died for the effort. Another team that gave up just shy of the top lived to tell about it.
Stories and legends abound about the ones who didn’t give up. But what about the ones who recognized their chances of success were poor, or that success itself was achievable, but too costly, such as knowing when to abandon a losing hand at poker, for instance, as in the Kenny Rogers classic. She points out that the lyrics are mainly about giving up, not about continuing.
There are few tales and no legends about those who gave up heroically, who saw they were chasing impossible, possibly hare-brained, ill-conceived ideas to begin with. There’s no obvious valor in cutting your losses, in ceasing to waste valuable time, money, and other resources pursuing the unattainable.
As Tyler Cowen likes to say, it’s self-recommending.
The page at Econtalk has the audio, the transcript, and extensive links related to the conversation.
Seems to be relevant:
https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/sunk-cost-fallacy/
"Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money or effort) (Arkes & Blumer, 1985). This fallacy, which is related to loss aversion and status quo bias, can also be viewed as bias resulting from an ongoing commitment.
For example, individuals sometimes order too much food and then over-eat just to “get their money’s worth”. Similarly, a person may have a $20 ticket to a concert and then drive for hours through a blizzard, just because she feels that she has to attend due to having made the initial investment. If the costs outweigh the benefits, the extra costs incurred (inconvenience, time or even money) are held in a different mental account than the one associated with the ticket transaction (Thaler, 1999)."
As to quitting, while I am sometimes stubborn and on occasion worried about job security...I know when I should quit for my mental health etc...and I have over the years
Sometimes I hung on too long because of fear of getting another job etc, or because I hear my dad tape in my head about not quitting...lol...
Sometimes things other than money kept me at jobs also.