Does anyone else feel like SO MUCH BAD SHIT is happening lately? Is 2010 REALLY going to have the balls to be worse than 2009? Fuck that, man. Not cool. Perhaps my mistake is in assuming that bad things happen in a linear fashion, with predictable and sufficient space in between. But, as the book I just finished points out, life is more like whacking a ketchup bottle: you may whack consistently, but the results are anything but.
Well, hope you enjoyed that Deep Thought by Jack Handey. Christ. Speaking of deep(ish) thoughts, I recently enjoyed another epic battle in my quest to get others to understand the Sunk Cost Theory.
FACT: Tosc and Ava and I have plane tickets to MN the weekend of Mothers Day.
FACT: The cost of each ticket was $175 (a good deal)
SITUATION: A highly desirable fire department is doing physical agility testing on the weekend we are supposed to travel to MN (we did not know this at the time we bought the tickets). Passing the physcial agility test is mandatory if Tosc wants to be considered for a job with this department (he does). There are no make-up dates for the test.
Now then. Which of the above FACTS are relevant to the above SITUATION? The answer is NEITHER OF THEM OMG OMG OMG. The plane ticket, regardless of price, is a SUNK COST. We will not be getting that money back, no matter what we do on Mothers Day. Even if the ticket had been $10,000, it should not be used as a basis for any future decision.
Why do I appear to be the only person on GAWD'S GREEN EARTH who understands this? And you know what's an even WORSE decision than choosing a clearly suboptimal path in order to not "waste" money that has already been spent? Paying even MORE money to change the ticket to some OTHER date, when he doesn't even WANT to travel! That's like buying even more fucking Enron stock just so that losing your original investment won't be so painful!
*pant pant pant*
Sigh. Hey, you know what would help? Foah the love of gawd, tell me about the many ways in which you fail to apply the sunk cost theory. Clean plate club, anyone? (OMG guilty).
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I swear to God, a team of newborn MONKEYS could come up with better blog titles.
18 comments:
I totally understand it, AND I struggle ALL THE TIME with applying it. I recently bought a shower curtain I'd been pining for, and I ruined it almost immediately by putting it through the wash with some black stuff. It's not salvageable. It is VERY DIFFICULT for me to go out and re-buy the shower curtain. Notice I said "re-buy," as if I think I'm buying the same curtain twice.
Oh how you've made my little econometrics major heart palpitate with your understanding of sunk costs!
And yet, I do not apply it well when it comes to tickets- plane, concert, what have you. I sometimes do not want to go, am not feeling well, etc etc, but I feel like I MUST because I PAID FOR THE TICKET so I make myself MORE miserable, sick, etc by dragging myself to the event. Because THAT'S a good use of time.
Now I know there's a name for something I'm consistently doing! If I'm at a baseball game and I'm bored or tired or just DONE, I leave. The cost of the tickets is gone, regardless of whether I sit miserably through the rest of the innings. Likewise with other "ticketed experiences." I'm not so good at applying the theory to tangible things, however.
Stupid stuff- like feeling I have to use up a bottle of conditioner or lotion that I ended up hating the smell of, because otherwise I will waste money.
Caught myself doing this the other day when my son announced that, despite his repeated reassurances that he DID want to do baseball this year, he, in fact, did not want to do it after we already signed up and paid $200 for the privilege of spending a ridiculous amount of time at practices and games. My first thought was to say "we paid $200 for this, you are doing it." Then I realized, what the hell. I hate the time suck, I hate the boredom, I hate everything about this damned sport. If he really doesn't want to do it after going to a few practices and games, we're out and I won't think about the $200 again. I can't get it back, so what the hell.
Chasing sunk costs is basically my life's core principle. I will endure no end of misery just so I don't waste that two dollars.
Here's one - figuring out how many times you have to attend the waterpark during the summer to get your money's worth on season passes. There were weekends we didn't even WANT to go, but we're gonna slather up with sunscreen and enjoy ourselves dammit!
Waiting for the bus, where the cost is time. I've already waited an hour, I'm not getting that hour back, why am I THINKING about that damn hour when deciding if I'm just going to give the hell up and take the train instead? But I do, every time.
I am with Melospiza. I will endure untold amounts of hell because, dammit, I paid for it!
My husband would agree with Buster above. I would rather cut my losses.
Oh. I GET it. Totally get it.
Sometimes my life is just ONE GIANT SUNK COST.
(Minus the children. I'm feeling fond of them tonight.)
I second the notion of children's activities being sunk costs. Damned kids change their minds and make everyone gripey when it's time to GO PLAY, and yet I consciously have to remind myself that I have already thrown the money down the hole, so there's no point making us all miserable now. I had never heard of sunk cost, but I always thought of it in the context of poker and "throwing good money after bad."
plane tickets always involve sunk cost it seems ($150 for me last weekend, if it makes you feel any better). I need to stop using my credit card points on $100 amazon.com gift cards (to buy utter crap) and on plane tickets instead since it seems the cost, and value, of said tickets is always higher. *looking for southwest card application now*
While I understand this, I have a hard time practicing. For example, the money for your plane tickets is paying for the experience you would have in MN. Seeing family, etc, has value. So therefore, the tickets MUST BE HONORED because the price is not only the money but the FAMILY TIME.
It's hard, living in my brain. I love your way of thinking, and strive to be like you when I grow up. =)
Learning about sunk cost in my first college econ class was perhaps the greatest thing I learned in my entire college experience. It has helped me to walk many a person through a tough decision. Most people look at me funny when I shrug and say "it's a sunk cost, don't use that to make your decision".
I'd have a hard time with the plane ticket because like Marie Green said, you're paying for the experience of seeing your family. So you're not getting what you paid for, and that makes me sad. I do understand the sunk cost aspect, though.
I thought of another one and came back all proud to tell you about it, and then I see that "Clean Plate Club" is PART OF THE POST ALREADY.
Yes. So anyway, another area where I have trouble applying it is if I've been thinking all day about the awesome spicy chicken sandwich I'm going to get at Wendy's, and then I get the sandwich and it's not a very good one. It's not even very good AT ALL. Where is the spicy flavor? Mysteriously absent. And the bun has an unpleasant raw-dough flavor. And so why do I KEEP EATING IT, NOT ENJOYING IT as well as SACRIFICING CALORIES THAT COULD BE USED FOR BOOZE, just because I THOUGHT I'd like it more than I do? How am I benefiting from finishing the sandwich I DON'T LIKE? But it is pretty common for me to WHILE THINKING ABOUT THIS finish the sandwich.
I'm getting better, though: if my kids don't finish their nuggets, I don't lament the wasted money and try to make myself eat the extra food so it isn't "wasted." I think, "Well, they're not going to give us our 50 cents back for half an order of nuggets"---*PITCH INTO TRASH*.
I LOVE your sunk cost theory and have been using it in arguments ever since college when you so kindly explained it to me!
Post a Comment