Everyone knows about the sunk cost fallacy. It’s likely that we have all experienced it many times. I certainly have.
I rarely get tied down to possessions anymore. Getting rid of everything we owned in preparation for living on the road after my wife died completely changed my perspective on stuff. That said, I am not immune to making irrational decisions based on sunk costs – especially when it comes to time, routine and daily habits.
On the other hand, as a counter, I am often calculating days in a row, repetitions completed, years I’ve done something, etc. It brings me comfort thinking about the number of pots of coffee I made for my wife, how many pullups I did in a year, or how many dog walks I’ve taken over my lifetime.
I do have some attachments to brands and manufacturers too. Once I find something that works well for me, I tend to stick with it – Apple, AMEX, Marmot, Brooks and Perform Better are some I have counted on for years or even decades.
While working through my computer upgrade project, I experienced the opposite of the sunk cost fallacy.
I had been using Apple Podcasts for years. The GUI is clean and logical. The transcription is exceptional. The search functionality is decent. The fast forward and reward intervals are customizable. Overall I’ve been very pleased with it. Still there are a few things I wish it could do better.
After wrapping up my computer installation project, I decided to check out other podcast apps to see if there was anything better. After an initial round of testing, two made my shortlist: Overcast & PocketCast.
I spent a few hours setting up Overcast and customizing it. Then I used it for the next week. It had a couple of functions that Apple didn’t offer. I likely would have kept using it except it lacked transcriptions, which I’ve come to rely on for finding my place when I switch devices, deciphering a word I could’t catch or getting a link to something I want to look up. My workaround was to visit Apple podcasts when I needed a transcript. I do this so often, it became a deal breaker.
Then I tested PocketCast. It appeared to have everything I wanted with even more customizations I could use to tweak my listening experiences. I spent a couple of hours configuring it and was starting to familairize myself with how to use it when I ran into a couple of stumbling blocks.
The first was that I had to figure out how to do everything – playing, fwd/rev, downloads etc. Like Overcast, I figured it would take me about a week to get accustomed to the GUI.
The second was that I discovered transcriptions were only available with the premium option that cost around $50 a year. I don’t love that I had to pay for a subscription when I could get transcripts from a number of different Podcast Apps for free. That said, if everything else was better, I’d consider it.
The third issue was a brick wall. There was no way for me to use the App without agreeing to a “free one week trial” which would automatically convert to paid subscription. I don’t mind limited trial periods or a “light” version for free users, but I’m not committing to a locked in subscription. I don’t want to deal with that before even getting to try the product.
The final straw was as I was thinking about it more, I realized I don’t want to be bothered learning another new podcast app. And that’s where the sunk cost fallacy became a sunk cost truth for me.
I didn’t irrationally decide to stick with Apple out of misplaced brand loyalty or “sunk costs”. Instead, after all was said and done, I had two major thoughts:
- Everything just works across all of my devices. Apple podcasts isn’t perfect, but it comes pretty close.
- I can’t be bothered getting familier with another podcast app. I already spent a week doing that with Overcast.
Not changing is not always a bad decision. Given my track record of relocating, changing jobs, cutting ties and starting over, I’ve only begun recognizing this as an inherently valuable part of my life.