This is so validating! I can remember times when I was asked to redo a project I had spent hours on. I spent more time in resistance than I did in actually repeating steps. Because often when we backtrack, we can see the steps we overlooked or missed, yet our minds don’t think that will be the case. Glad to know there’s a term for this.
I too am guilty of believing in sunk cost phallacy. I’ve invested so much time, I have to make this work. I can’t back out now, I’ll have wasted so much energy. Society has branded it as “quitting.” Quitting ain’t just for losers. Some of us just need to move on.
Very true, I recognize it. Thank you for the explanation and the practical suggestions to prevent this in the future. Connect this to the resistance most men have to asking directions, and a lot of marital frustrations might be prevented!
OMG - thank you. This helps explain the excruciating pain of backtracking in my effectiveness as I'm learning new skills. After coaching for 7 years, I've gone back to school for a masters in counseling. I'm engaged, excited, loving it... AND it's so painful to feel the "backtracking" moments that I know are taking me to a better place. (as a kid, I remember vacations where my dad would realize about 2 miles from home that he'd forgotten his sunglasses, but NO WAY were we going back to get them! lol). Thanks, Chris...I really appreciate your posts.
Yes - this is quite topical for me right now, I have knitted the ribbing for a cardigan in fine linen yarn, to find it is not wide enough and I have to start over. It took ages to get this far. I was almost contemplating continuing and giving the finished product to my nieces!! Going to frog it straight away. Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing this Chris! I see a lot of similarities with the sunk cost fallacy, but the travel and refusing to learn new skills examples appear particularly distinct to doubling-back aversion. I faced this recently on my Substack - strong resistance to rethinking my monetising strategy because of the work I'd already done, even though it wasn't working. But last weekend I decided to turn off paid and start afresh - better to have a paid offer I'm proud of. And the effort isn't wasted - it's full of learning opportunities 😉
Light bulb moment. After two years of avoiding it, I'm finally removing a section of my flower farm (turning four large flower beds back to grass). As I was doing it, I couldn't understand why it felt so entirely depressing, even though in every way it will improve my business (and mental health!). This is so enlightening thank you! 🙏
Chris, this is fantastic and very timely. I'm working through some really strong 'doubling-back aversion' at the moment, I think. Or rather it's a sentiment of having to turn around to something I thought I had left and feeling like I'm doubling back on something I should have progressed on from.
This is such a cool call-out to reflect on, and it really makes me think of the art of non-conformity in general - that practicing that art probably comes with a lot of scenarios where one needs to deal with this aversion and be willing to double-back in the short term for longer term gain (or freedom).
I did want to kindly point out though that I think your specific examples are maybe conflating the concept of double-back aversion and sunk cost fallacy. Especially the first, second and last examples.
I appreciate there are heavy overlaps, but sunk cost fallacy involves continuing a behaviour because of past investment (time, money, effort), even when it's no longer the best course; double-back aversion is avoiding undoing prior progress even when it's more efficient because it feels like going backwards.
Here are some examples that are a little more specific to double-back aversion, even if there could be elements of sunk cost fallacy in them:
- Avoiding switching to a new method or course that would require “starting over”, despite it offering clearer, faster progress.
- Sticking with a flawed piece of writing, art, or music because reworking it would mean deleting what’s already been done, even when the idea clearly isn’t working.
- Refusing to go back to the store after forgetting an item, deciding to make do with less, even if returning would take just a few minutes and save a lot of hassle later.
- An ambitious employee climbs the ladder into a management role, only to realise they’re better suited to technical or specialist work. Despite knowing this, they stay in leadership because stepping down would feel like career regression, even though it would lead to more satisfaction and success.
Where in my own life? Oh golly, everything from staying in a bad relationship way beyond when I knew I should bail to literally taking the wrong road home, so that I had to take a ferry to get across the bay - three extra hours on top of a long day.
This is really sticking with me. While I'm more consciously aware of sunk-cost fallacy – and can convince myself not to continue investing into the same bucket – I have felt the trap that my next turn must build FROM what I've built. As opposed to step backward from it.
I think I avoid the pain backtracking by engaging in art practices where there is no going back! Ink, marker, watercolor, cyanotype — these are all marks that must be “let lie” and made peace with. It makes me wonder what I am leaving out of my toolkit or unwilling to learn through that avoidance.
This is so validating! I can remember times when I was asked to redo a project I had spent hours on. I spent more time in resistance than I did in actually repeating steps. Because often when we backtrack, we can see the steps we overlooked or missed, yet our minds don’t think that will be the case. Glad to know there’s a term for this.
I too am guilty of believing in sunk cost phallacy. I’ve invested so much time, I have to make this work. I can’t back out now, I’ll have wasted so much energy. Society has branded it as “quitting.” Quitting ain’t just for losers. Some of us just need to move on.
Very true, I recognize it. Thank you for the explanation and the practical suggestions to prevent this in the future. Connect this to the resistance most men have to asking directions, and a lot of marital frustrations might be prevented!
OMG - thank you. This helps explain the excruciating pain of backtracking in my effectiveness as I'm learning new skills. After coaching for 7 years, I've gone back to school for a masters in counseling. I'm engaged, excited, loving it... AND it's so painful to feel the "backtracking" moments that I know are taking me to a better place. (as a kid, I remember vacations where my dad would realize about 2 miles from home that he'd forgotten his sunglasses, but NO WAY were we going back to get them! lol). Thanks, Chris...I really appreciate your posts.
As a writer, I feel like this is a life-long reckoning. The old “kill your darlings”.
Yes - this is quite topical for me right now, I have knitted the ribbing for a cardigan in fine linen yarn, to find it is not wide enough and I have to start over. It took ages to get this far. I was almost contemplating continuing and giving the finished product to my nieces!! Going to frog it straight away. Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing this Chris! I see a lot of similarities with the sunk cost fallacy, but the travel and refusing to learn new skills examples appear particularly distinct to doubling-back aversion. I faced this recently on my Substack - strong resistance to rethinking my monetising strategy because of the work I'd already done, even though it wasn't working. But last weekend I decided to turn off paid and start afresh - better to have a paid offer I'm proud of. And the effort isn't wasted - it's full of learning opportunities 😉
Light bulb moment. After two years of avoiding it, I'm finally removing a section of my flower farm (turning four large flower beds back to grass). As I was doing it, I couldn't understand why it felt so entirely depressing, even though in every way it will improve my business (and mental health!). This is so enlightening thank you! 🙏
Chris, this is fantastic and very timely. I'm working through some really strong 'doubling-back aversion' at the moment, I think. Or rather it's a sentiment of having to turn around to something I thought I had left and feeling like I'm doubling back on something I should have progressed on from.
This is such a cool call-out to reflect on, and it really makes me think of the art of non-conformity in general - that practicing that art probably comes with a lot of scenarios where one needs to deal with this aversion and be willing to double-back in the short term for longer term gain (or freedom).
I did want to kindly point out though that I think your specific examples are maybe conflating the concept of double-back aversion and sunk cost fallacy. Especially the first, second and last examples.
I appreciate there are heavy overlaps, but sunk cost fallacy involves continuing a behaviour because of past investment (time, money, effort), even when it's no longer the best course; double-back aversion is avoiding undoing prior progress even when it's more efficient because it feels like going backwards.
Here are some examples that are a little more specific to double-back aversion, even if there could be elements of sunk cost fallacy in them:
- Avoiding switching to a new method or course that would require “starting over”, despite it offering clearer, faster progress.
- Sticking with a flawed piece of writing, art, or music because reworking it would mean deleting what’s already been done, even when the idea clearly isn’t working.
- Refusing to go back to the store after forgetting an item, deciding to make do with less, even if returning would take just a few minutes and save a lot of hassle later.
- An ambitious employee climbs the ladder into a management role, only to realise they’re better suited to technical or specialist work. Despite knowing this, they stay in leadership because stepping down would feel like career regression, even though it would lead to more satisfaction and success.
It also reminded me of another concept this relates to, called 'the Einstellung effect'. I wrote about this myself a couple of years ago now: https://devsingh.substack.com/p/the-einstellung-effect
Where in my own life? Oh golly, everything from staying in a bad relationship way beyond when I knew I should bail to literally taking the wrong road home, so that I had to take a ferry to get across the bay - three extra hours on top of a long day.
Good info. Shared!
This is really sticking with me. While I'm more consciously aware of sunk-cost fallacy – and can convince myself not to continue investing into the same bucket – I have felt the trap that my next turn must build FROM what I've built. As opposed to step backward from it.
Thanks Chris, this was insightful.
I think I avoid the pain backtracking by engaging in art practices where there is no going back! Ink, marker, watercolor, cyanotype — these are all marks that must be “let lie” and made peace with. It makes me wonder what I am leaving out of my toolkit or unwilling to learn through that avoidance.
New lessons ahead!