Sunk Cost (model form)
Past investment is irrelevant to future decisions.
"It's already gone. The only question is what's next."
What is Sunk Cost (model form)? Past investment is irrelevant to future decisions. Capital reallocation discipline.
Killing a project on its forward economics, not its history.
Capital reallocation discipline.
Decision template that asks: 'If we were starting fresh today, would we fund this?'
Use the model. Pick the move.
Past investment is irrelevant to future decisions. You've just seen this: Killing a project on its forward economics, not its history. Which lever does the model recommend?
Pick a lever. There are no neutral ones — every incentive funds a behavior somewhere.
Pick a reaction to Sunk Cost (model form)
One tap. We'll point you at the most useful next surface based on how this hits.
The full taxonomy entry
Every concept in the Atlas uses the same structure — so Sunk Cost (model form) can be compared, recombined, and cited like an element on a periodic table.
- Business
- Leadership
- Government
- Healthcare
- Education
- Sales
- Marketing
- AI
- Negotiation
- Media
- Public Policy
- Relationships
- Where in our org would Sunk Cost (model form) most often show up unnoticed?
- Which metric, ritual, or contract clause quietly rewards Sunk Cost (model form)?
- If we removed every payoff for Sunk Cost (model form), what behavior would replace it?
- Who benefits when Sunk Cost (model form) persists — and who pays the cost?
- People defend the status quo using the language of sunk cost (model form).
- Decisions cluster around the easiest narrative rather than the strongest evidence.
- New data changes the slide deck but not the decision.
- Anyone naming the pattern is treated as the problem.
Every Atlas entry is a node in a knowledge graph. See the related rail below to follow the connections.
See Sunk Cost (model form) through 3 lenses
Each layer of the Incentives OS reframes this concept with its own thinkers, vocabulary, and diagnostic question.
Do you actually know Sunk Cost (model form)?
Three quick questions. Result is saved into your review streak — come back when the term is due to lock it in.
Which best describes Sunk Cost (model form)?
Worked example, counter-example & concept map
On-demand AI analysis grounded in the Lab's research. Cached on your device after first run.
When you encounter Sunk Cost (model form), your prefrontal cortex has to do extra work to override the automatic response — and that override budget is finite.
Executive control, planning, impulse override, working memory, System 2. First thing to go offline under stress, fatigue, or low blood sugar. Why your 4pm decisions are worse than your 9am ones.
See Prefrontal in the Brain Atlas →Picked for you, from the Atlas
Ranked by shared learning paths, overlapping chips, and what you've saved.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Predicting how we will feel in the future, usually inaccurately.
Forgetting to compare an offer with the next-best alternative.
Outcomes that could have happened but did not.
Overthinking a situation so that decision-making stalls.
Send the card, not just the link
A pre-rendered social card with the title, eyebrow, and URL. Copy the link, post it anywhere, or download the SVG for slides.
More definitions to follow
Every term in the Atlas connects to a dozen others. Pick any of these and see where it takes you.
A leader's conviction warps what others believe is possible — for better and for worse.
Foundational skills erode through AI offloading.
Start absurdly small, anchor to an existing routine, celebrate immediately.
AI system that takes actions to achieve goals, often across tools.
It's true because many believe it.
The rate at which customers (or employees) leave over a period.
The threshold at which a system becomes self-sustaining.
The whole has properties that the individual parts do not.
Who, what, when, where, why — the minimum facts for any account.
We act in ways that confirm 'people like me do things like this.'
Optimizing in a small region while missing a better global solution.
The value of the next-best thing you could have done.