Sunk Cost Fallacy

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

The sunk cost fallacy in coding is refusing to throw away bad code because you spent so long writing it. 'We can't switch frameworks — we've invested six months in this one!' The time is gone regardless. The only question is: what's the best path forward from HERE? But try telling that to someone who just wrote 10,000 lines of code that needs to be deleted.

Real Talk

In software development, the sunk cost fallacy manifests as continuing with suboptimal technical decisions because of prior investment. Examples include maintaining a broken architecture, persisting with an unsuitable technology choice, or refusing to revert a failed refactor. Rational decision-making requires evaluating options based on future value, not past investment.

When You'll Hear This

"We should rewrite this module — don't let sunk cost fallacy keep us on a bad path." / "Yes, we spent 3 months on it. That's a sunk cost. The question is what's best NOW."