3. Oct, 2019

Sunk Cost Fallacy ...

Picture by https://pixabay.com/photos/south-tyrol-italy-val-venosta-213960/ 

How do you come from the 29th anniversary of the Day of German Unity today to the topic of Sunk Cost Fallacy? Not so difficult 🙂.

One result of the German reunification in 1990 was the decision to build a new airport for the common capital of East and West Germany in Berlin. "In what has to be the most delayed new airport ever, Berlin Brandenburg is evidently coming closer to completion. First set to open in 2012, ... The latest timeline sees a late-2020 opening for the airport, but many believe this could slip further to 2021". Other countries build a complete new International Airport from scratch easily in the time, we are just waiting for the official opening, 7 years in the meantime.   

One of the discussions that is coming up every time a new delay or cost increase is communicated for the Berlin-Brandenburg-Airport is to stop it, tear it down and start all over again.

"Do you often find yourself continuing on a path that doesn't feel right, only because you’ve already invested so much time or money into it? You might strongly dislike what you’re doing, but you feel like you have to stay the course because you can’t imagine doing anything differently. If this sounds familiar, then you’re probably dealing with the negative consequences of the sunk cost fallacy mindset." Here we are 👍

 “Better an end with horror than a horror without end.” -- Ferdinand von Schill  https://prabook.com/web/ferdinand.von_schill/3727647  

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, https://www.dobelli.com/en/person/