More fake sunk cost fallacies
Jan. 30th, 2013 05:31 pmI'm still not sure what to call this, but several more examples of what I compared to the sunk cost fallacy, but with an unexpected opportunity you need to ignore, instead of a pre-committed cost you need to ignore.
1. Oh hey, I thought of a REALLY REALLY CLEVER plot twist for my book. I'll put it in.
This seems to happen in even quite high-profile films, where the director is wedded to some clever idea that isn't what everyone else likes about the film.
The author phrase for it is, "murder your darlings" as in, even bits of the book (sentences, ideas, characters, turns of phrase, plot points) that you like, or even, ones that are REALLY GOOD, may still not be the ones that produce the best whole.
2. I was going to lie, but now I have an opportunity to lie by telling the exact literal truth and let someone misinterpret me.
There are some good reasons for this. You want to be able to mock them later. You (or society) want to put artificial barriers in the way of breaking your resolution not to lie so you don't do so repeatedly.
But basically, it's just the same as lying, so lie well. (A good lie is often as simple as possible and mostly close to the truth, but happening to contain the same words as the truth doesn't actually help.)
3. Oh look, I have lots of hearts, I'll preempt in hearts.
Sometimes you have a really good preempt, and want to bid it. But if the existing bidding says that your preempt won't help, there's no point doing it just because you'd been looking forward to getting an opportunity to make that bid.
4. Oh look, I found a really cheap weasel froblicator!
I should buy that, in case I ever need a weasel froblicator. It would be a shame if I needed to froblicate some weasels and had to buy one full price. OK, yes, it would be a shame, but how likely is it? Really?
The commonality
The common thread, to me, is that you're presented with an opportunity you subconsciously expected to be rare, and hence precious, and hence you want to make the most of it.
But that's only actually useful if the opportunity is something that actually helps. If someone gives you a free weasel froblicator and you don't need it, it's mostly just a burden.
1. Oh hey, I thought of a REALLY REALLY CLEVER plot twist for my book. I'll put it in.
This seems to happen in even quite high-profile films, where the director is wedded to some clever idea that isn't what everyone else likes about the film.
The author phrase for it is, "murder your darlings" as in, even bits of the book (sentences, ideas, characters, turns of phrase, plot points) that you like, or even, ones that are REALLY GOOD, may still not be the ones that produce the best whole.
2. I was going to lie, but now I have an opportunity to lie by telling the exact literal truth and let someone misinterpret me.
There are some good reasons for this. You want to be able to mock them later. You (or society) want to put artificial barriers in the way of breaking your resolution not to lie so you don't do so repeatedly.
But basically, it's just the same as lying, so lie well. (A good lie is often as simple as possible and mostly close to the truth, but happening to contain the same words as the truth doesn't actually help.)
3. Oh look, I have lots of hearts, I'll preempt in hearts.
Sometimes you have a really good preempt, and want to bid it. But if the existing bidding says that your preempt won't help, there's no point doing it just because you'd been looking forward to getting an opportunity to make that bid.
4. Oh look, I found a really cheap weasel froblicator!
I should buy that, in case I ever need a weasel froblicator. It would be a shame if I needed to froblicate some weasels and had to buy one full price. OK, yes, it would be a shame, but how likely is it? Really?
The commonality
The common thread, to me, is that you're presented with an opportunity you subconsciously expected to be rare, and hence precious, and hence you want to make the most of it.
But that's only actually useful if the opportunity is something that actually helps. If someone gives you a free weasel froblicator and you don't need it, it's mostly just a burden.