In Praise of Quitting
by Gordon Weakliem
In Praise of Quitting - Gets quickly to the point by saying “The far, far greater danger is in devoting our days to something that fundamentally doesn’t matter to us”, though I think the real meat is further down:
Life is, of course, just like this: You get only one shot, and it’s up to you to make the most of it by rejecting okay or even pretty good ways to allocate your time or other resources — to hunt down the opportunities to make really great bets on yourself. Do not make barely positive-value bets with your life!
We try to make choices based on the best information available, but the world is always changing, and it’s changing faster than ever before:
But the truth is that everything is in constant flux. Beneath the labels, life continues evolving all the time. Your interests change, companies change, and industries change. Given that your “steady job” is constantly evolving, even if you picked the highest-leverage option initially, there is a low chance that it will remain your highest-leverage option over time.
The author focuses on the sunk cost fallacy, but sunk cost isn’t the only fallacy. Another one is simple lack of clarity of thought - sometimes you enter a partnership with a direction or strategy in mind, but things change, or you discover things and realize that the thinking that got you into that situation either is no longer valid, or never was. It’s very important to see the world as it is and not as you wish it was.
I really like the two strategies: make each choice in your day conciously (this would be impossible to do literally but it’s a good guide for major choices), and second to unsubscibe from everything in your life and then conciously opt back in to the things you actually want.