Annie Duke is the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets, How to Decide, and Quit. She is also a corporate speaker and consultant in the decision-making space. As a former professional poker player, Annie won more than $4 million in tournament poker before retiring from the game in 2012. She is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision-skills education.
“Quit” shouldn’t be a dirty word
Quitting has a negative connotation in popular culture, but in reality, quitting can be a valuable tool for making better decisions and achieving success. The author suggests that perseverance is not always the best strategy and that, in certain situations, quitting is the best way to move forward and make progress towards long-term goals.
Quitting does not slow progress and instead can help you make better decisions by allowing you to react to new information and changing circumstances.
Quitting smartly
Quitting smartly involves being aware of the cognitive biases that can lead to poor decision-making and developing strategies for evaluating when it’s time to quit. One has to evaluate when it’s time to quit and when it’s better to persist. One has to make decisions that take into account the probability of success, the potential costs and benefits, and the possibility of changing circumstances.
The value of quitting in the long run
Quitting can be an important tool for achieving success in the long run. By quitting when appropriate, you can free up resources to pursue more promising opportunities. Quitting can help you avoid the “sunk cost fallacy,” which is the tendency to persist in a losing endeavor because of the resources already invested.
Quitting can also help you avoid the trap of being too committed to an idea or approach and can help you stay flexible and adaptable to new information.
Quitting on time will usually feel like quitting too early
The uncertainty that comes with making decisions can make it difficult to know when to quit. People often hold on to a losing endeavor for too long because they want to be sure that there is no other choice. Quitting at the right time will often feel like quitting too early because there will still be a chance of turning things around.
Watch the signs
We think that when the world tells us it’s time to quit, we’ll listen. But we don’t. People often ignore the clear signals that it’s time to quit and instead escalate their commitment to losing causes. This is due to cognitive biases and human nature, and people tend to misinterpret, minimize, or ignore signals that quitting would be the best choice.
