You seem to suggest to perform sub-optimal actions to put to use an item just because you happen to own it and to have spent a significant amount of money to acquire it: I’m assuming that if bought your cloak for the same price of a typical sweater, you would preferably use sweaters rather than the cloak. If this assumption is correct, then you are committing the sunken cost fallacy.
Planning ahead of time to perform sub-optimal actions would seem to require a different label to “Sunk Cost Fallacy”, assuming said actions would, in fact, be sub-optimal.
Or perhaps the “It’s Just Not A Sunk Cost Fallacy When You Have Not Sunk Cost And For Crying Out Loud It Is ‘Sunk’ Not ‘Sunken’ I’ve Been Trying To Correct That Subtly” fallacy?
The sunk cost fallacy is taking into account costs that have already incurred and are unrecoverable when making your current decision.
Planning your decisions ahead of time is merely an optimization: in order to do it correctly, you have to plan each decision according to the world state that you expect to occur when that decision is to be executed.
In the cloak example, in world states where a decision between wearing the cloak and wearing a sweater is to be executed, the price of the cloak and the price of the sweaters are sunk costs, thus they should not affect the decision.
Planning ahead of time to perform sub-optimal actions would seem to require a different label to “Sunk Cost Fallacy”, assuming said actions would, in fact, be sub-optimal.
Throwing The Cost In The Sea Fallacy?
We could customize it to “Muffin Making Modification”!
Madness?
“People are crazy, the world is mad!” does tend to work as a generic catch-all. It perhaps lacks a little a specific descriptor.
Planned sunk (edited, thanks wedrifid) cost fallacy?
Or perhaps the “It’s Just Not A Sunk Cost Fallacy When You Have Not Sunk Cost And For Crying Out Loud It Is ‘Sunk’ Not ‘Sunken’ I’ve Been Trying To Correct That Subtly” fallacy?
The sunk cost fallacy is taking into account costs that have already incurred and are unrecoverable when making your current decision.
Planning your decisions ahead of time is merely an optimization: in order to do it correctly, you have to plan each decision according to the world state that you expect to occur when that decision is to be executed.
In the cloak example, in world states where a decision between wearing the cloak and wearing a sweater is to be executed, the price of the cloak and the price of the sweaters are sunk costs, thus they should not affect the decision.