The Opposit of a Great Virtue Is Also a Good Virtue

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The opposite of a great virtue is also a great virtue. That seems, I think most people would say, well, that can't be true or worse. What do you mean by that? And one of the reasons I love it is that it's memorable and it might help you make a decision that you would otherwise miss if you didn't remember that. In fact, there are certain cases where it becomes a moral imperative to quit. There's a wonderful story of quitting on the top of Mount Everest.

Annie Duke is angry that quitting gets such a bad rap. Instead of our relentless focus on grit and "going for it," the former professional poker player, decision strategist, and author of Quit wants us to recognize the costs associated with sticking to a losing outcome. Listen as she explains to EconTalk host Russ Roberts how society's conflation of grit with character has made quitting unnecessarily hard, and why our desire for certainty harms our decision-making ability. Additional topics include the flawed mental accounting that makes us confuse wins for losses, what we can learn from ants, and the tragic story of how the refusal to quit cost 16 lives one terrible night at the top of Mt. Everest.