Fire Festival - The Most Insane Festival in the World

In life and work, we have a hard time changing course. When we wind up in a miserable job, a failing project, or a floundering romantic relationship, we rationalize, make excuses, and stick with our bad decisions—even when the writing's on the wall. Why? Usually we assume the driving force is sunk costs: we don't want to admit we've wasted that time or money. But in fact, the root of our stubbornness is a psychological trap called “escalation of commitment.” Once we understand that, we can start taking steps to protect ourselves from… well, ourselves. This is an episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant, another podcast in the TED Audio Collective. For more episodes, find and follow WorkLife wherever you're listening to this. 

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

How to Be a Better Human is nominated for the Signal Award for Best Advice & How To. Vote here!

Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:

TEDNext: ted.com/futureyou

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.