I just made this decision about 5 minutes ago, so I’m posting it here as some form of commitment to stick to it.
A while ago, I decided to make a Minecraft adventure map. An embarrassing amount of time was invested into making it, but sizable progress was made in that time. That’s what kept me going. The feeling of making progress on a big personal project.
But taking an outside view on it...
How much time will it take to complete? A whole hell of a lot more.
What could I do in that time instead? Make more friends, learn a programming language or two, plenty of stuff.
What will probably happen if it is completed? I will probably get a few dozen downloads of the map and that’s it.
What benefits will accrue by completing it? Not enough to justify the time spent on it.
Somebody is calling this project an example of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. How would I respond? Hang my head in shame.
Is it fun? Somewhat, but much more fun things could probably be done with the time instead.
So I give up. It’s a really huge sunk cost by this point, and it feels terrible that I used so much time on something I just abandoned halfway through, but every time I imagine what someone smarter than me would say, it is some variant of “Finally you realize it now.” Time to walk away from Minecraft, permanently.
You could have also spent that time watching TV or surfing reddit. I’d rank a half-finish project that genuinely used your creative energy above those sorts of things.
I guarantee you most of the people on this site have a mountain of similar half-finished projects.
Actually, that gives me an idea. I’ve noticed that I have difficulty reducing goof-off internet time below about 90 min/day, so I’ll only work on it to funge against internet time.
It reminds me greatly my making of conlangs (artificial languages). While I find it creative, it takes vehement amounts of time to just create a simple draft and an arduous work to make satisfactory material.
And all I’d get is just two or three people calling it cool and showing just a small interest. And I always know I’ll get bored with that language in few days and never make as much as to translate simple texts.
And yet every now and then I get an amazing idea and can’t stop myself from “wasting” hours, planning and writing about some conlang. And I end up being unsatisfied.
I don’t think it is about Sunk Cost. It’s more about a form of addiction toward creative works. Some kind of vicious cycle, where brain engages in activity, that just makes you want more to do that activity. The more you work on it, the more you want to do it, until reaching saturation, when you just can’t look at it anymore.
I just made this decision about 5 minutes ago, so I’m posting it here as some form of commitment to stick to it.
A while ago, I decided to make a Minecraft adventure map. An embarrassing amount of time was invested into making it, but sizable progress was made in that time. That’s what kept me going. The feeling of making progress on a big personal project.
But taking an outside view on it...
How much time will it take to complete? A whole hell of a lot more.
What could I do in that time instead? Make more friends, learn a programming language or two, plenty of stuff.
What will probably happen if it is completed? I will probably get a few dozen downloads of the map and that’s it.
What benefits will accrue by completing it? Not enough to justify the time spent on it.
Somebody is calling this project an example of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. How would I respond? Hang my head in shame.
Is it fun? Somewhat, but much more fun things could probably be done with the time instead.
So I give up. It’s a really huge sunk cost by this point, and it feels terrible that I used so much time on something I just abandoned halfway through, but every time I imagine what someone smarter than me would say, it is some variant of “Finally you realize it now.” Time to walk away from Minecraft, permanently.
You could have also spent that time watching TV or surfing reddit. I’d rank a half-finish project that genuinely used your creative energy above those sorts of things.
I guarantee you most of the people on this site have a mountain of similar half-finished projects.
Actually, that gives me an idea. I’ve noticed that I have difficulty reducing goof-off internet time below about 90 min/day, so I’ll only work on it to funge against internet time.
I must say that does make me feel better.
It reminds me greatly my making of conlangs (artificial languages). While I find it creative, it takes vehement amounts of time to just create a simple draft and an arduous work to make satisfactory material. And all I’d get is just two or three people calling it cool and showing just a small interest. And I always know I’ll get bored with that language in few days and never make as much as to translate simple texts.
And yet every now and then I get an amazing idea and can’t stop myself from “wasting” hours, planning and writing about some conlang. And I end up being unsatisfied.
I don’t think it is about Sunk Cost. It’s more about a form of addiction toward creative works. Some kind of vicious cycle, where brain engages in activity, that just makes you want more to do that activity. The more you work on it, the more you want to do it, until reaching saturation, when you just can’t look at it anymore.