Sunk-cost fallacy
Spent is gone
A sunk cost is time, money, or effort already spent and unrecoverable. The fallacy is letting it justify spending more.
Escaping a sunk cost means judging a commitment by:
- Asking what you would choose today if you were starting fresh.
- Counting only future costs against future benefits.
- Treating what you already spent as information, not as a reason to continue.
The only question is whether the next dollar earns its return, never what the last one cost.