I enjoyed the new short LinkedIn course that Seth Godin created about decision-making where he approached the concept of sunk costs in a whole new way. It’s a concept I first learned from him in this blog post and his signature altMBA course which I took in 2019.

This time, Seth Godin focused on the idea of chips, the ones we earned by working hard or paying a lot of our money or/and time. An example could be the certificate we worked hard to achieve and paid so much for. We look for a job that matches the certificate we earned (the chip). If the job that this certificate provides for me turns out horrible or makes me miserable, I don’t make a decision about leaving it because I am hoarding the chips I earned. The chips weigh me down from making a new decision. A good decision about my happiness. Although I have new information: “I am miserable doing this job”, I still choose not to make a decision based on the past price I paid to get here. Which is irrelevant. It’s already a sunk cost. Seth calls it a gift from your past self to your current self that you don’t need to accept. You can simply say no, thank you.

Make your decisions based on the information you have now and the logical consequences that would follow. The longer you hold on to something that does not serve you, the more you will get attached emotionally to the chips, to the identity, to the status. Along the way, you hoard more chips that will stop you from embarking on new paths and new decisions.

Check the course out. You have 24Hrs to preview it for free.