Mental Models to Help You Cut Your Losses
Mental Models to Help You Cut Your Losses
Mental Models to Help You Cut Your Losses
By Annie Duke
November 7, 2022
Summary
To help X-ers become better quitters, Teller has come up with a unique mental model that has been woven into the fabric of X: monkeys and pedestals.
It's one of the best tools for helping you figure out when to quit closer to on time.
The best quitting criteria combine two things: a state and a date.
Kill criteria, generally, include both states and dates, in the form of "If I am in a particular state at a particular date or at a particular time, then I have to quit." Or "If I haven't done X by Y, I'll quit." Or "If I haven't achieved X by the time I've spent Y, I should quit."
It's hard to time quitting decisions perfectly.
Astro Teller knows that they don't always quit at the exact right moment at X. He's fine with that because they do better overall since they are always trying.
Taken together, the monkeys-and-pedestals mental model and kill criteria help us overcome our aversion to closing accounts in the losses.
Reference
Duke, A. (2022, November 7). Mental models to help you cut your losses - by Annie Duke. Behavioral Scientist. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://behavioralscientist.org/annie-duke-quit-mental-models-to-help-you-cut-your-losses/