Be careful where you anchor down
#129 - it's been a long week
Hi there,
It does not seem like just a week since I last wrote to you. 2nd week of university and so much has gone on (as I write more about later, in the Ray of Sunlight) - it makes writing away to you with some calm piano in the background a nice way to wind down, ahead of doing it all again 😂
Highlight of the week: tricky one since I’ve tried so many things. However, there is one undisputed champion - my chicken biryani. After a toil to actually get going (losing the spice packets, then having to 24h defrost the chicken), I finally made it yesterday and boy was it good. As my flatmate neighbour said “I wouldn’t mind paying for that in a restaurant” - need I say more? 😋👨🏾🍳
Imperial having over 350 clubs and societies means that there are bound to be clashes between (taster/introductory) events that I wanted to go to. The calendar below shows my menu of options for Tue-Thu this week.
As a side note, why the South Asian Society, Hindu Society and Cricket would have their first events at the same time is beyond me - surely the Venn diagram overlap between them is pretty large??
Let’s stick to Wednesday, where I had a choice to make.
I thought that the ASoc Meet and Greet looked great, and for £4, they promised a lot of food. It’s on campus which is convenient and (perhaps most importantly) I’d bought a ticket for it last week.
All the seniors I’d spoken to have emphasised the sports societies and recommended joining them. The social is a ‘freshers curry’ so I will meet more people my age and people I will spend a lot of time with at training and (eventually, once the grim weather passes) matches. The food was £16, a bit steep even for London.
Not a straightforward decision, as you might be able to tell. I ended up choosing cricket because of a) not doing many ‘freshers week’ events, b) prioritising the sports over cultural and c) I knew other people who were going.
In the decision-making process, I made sure I didn’t succumb to the sunk cost fallacy. It is our tendency to keep going with failing projects, when it doesn’t make rational sense to continue, because of previous investments (of money, time, energy or attention) which can’t be recovered. It’s the “I’ve already started so I might as well keep going” thought pattern, whether it’s with trivial things like a Netflix binge or larger life decisions like starting a business. In my case, it could have been going to the South Asian Soc event.
It is damaging because it prevents you from properly understanding the costs and benefits of moving forward, whether it’s with individuals, or larger organisations and governments. You can think of it as a version of commitment bias, another trick that our mind plays on us.
Morgan Housel, the author of one of my favourite books1, The Psychology of Money, puts it very well
Sunk costs—anchoring decisions to past efforts that can’t be refunded— are a devil in a world where people change over time. They make our future selves prisoners to our past, different, selves. It’s the equivalent of a stranger making major life decisions for you.
Relating to last week’s post about change, it is important to realise that the issue with sunk costs is twofold - both your personality, interests and priorities change as well as the world around us.
In terms of how to address it, here are 3 tips
Assess the true sunk costs and their significance - if the Asian Society was £15, then my decision would have played out differently. Given its small amount (put into perspective of London prices too), £4 wasn’t enough to sway the argument.
Try to be mobile and avoid sunk costs for as long as you can - this is going to be my strategy when there are so many options, as much as possible. This looks like signing up to things for as late as you can - but not too late. As one of our readers would say, “It’s all about balance”. (I’ll leave it as an exercise to the (Vesey) readers to work out who)
Stripping away the emotions to make decisions on cold, hard facts first - this is often easiest by explaining the situation to a third party. Without our own messy biases, they will often feel “Well it’s obvious isn’t it?”
Finally, remember to use the sunk cost fallacy in your favour too, playing the game with your mind. I will be paying for the Imperial Cricket membership later this week, at £90. It’s expensive (not compared to other universities) as a lump sum of money, which will drive me to a few training sessions when I’m a bit on the fence I’m sure. I explored similar ideas here.
As humans, we have evolved to be precious with our limited resources of time, energy, attention and money. Hence, when we’ve already half done something, we tend to ‘finish’ it, when we know that the right course of action is to pivot and change course - the sunk cost fallacy. Remember to avoid your mind tripping you up this way - it will be costlier.
If you want to read more about sunk costs, have a look at this article here.
Podcast of the week🎙️
This was a riveting listen: as always Steven is a great interviewer and he was well prepared here to tackle the bombastic oratory of Boris Johnson.
What I’m grateful for this week 🙏
My roommate Alec for carrying some of the shopping home on Friday - a bit more bulk shopping.
Quote of the week 💬
Take one step in the direction of your dreams and watch the Universe perform miracles to help you - Alexandra Domelle
The chilly weather won’t deter us from soldiering onto through our work, our goals and enjoying life. Fear not, Christmas is near. Until then, try not to sink.
Adi
Which reminds me - I need to carve out time for reading a book.