Sunk Costs: The Danger of Not Recognizing It Part 1

Once I was in a car when a sad thing happened. As the car got started I noticed a fly sitting on the outside of the glass in front of me. As the car sped up, the fly hung on and refused to fly away. It kept hanging on even as the car got to the highway, and the strong wind battered and broke off all its wings. Finally, the poor thing couldn’t hang on anymore and got blown away.

I feel sad every time I think about that fly. I know that it acted instinctively, that it had no way of knowing that it should’ve flown away when the going was still good. Still, I wish that it had not hung on.

It’s also sad that many people hold onto bad relationships with the same mentality.

In economics, sunk costs are old costs that have already been incurred. It’s the past, it’s dead, and there’s nothing you can do to get it back. According to the theory, people should not be basing their future decisions on sunk costs, because no matter what you do they can not be recovered.

If only human beings could think that rationally in love. Just like that poor fly, many people simply hold on too much and too long, instead of accepting what was not meant to be.

(continued in my next post...)