Volume 6 · The Unfinished Syllabus · Essay 131
Irrational Escalation Bias
Irrational Escalation Bias does not feel like an error when you are inside it. That is precisely what makes it one.
You cannot delete a bias, any more than you can delete hunger. What you can do is build a small checkpoint — a pause, a question, a second opinion — at the exact place where the bias usually collects its toll.
It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.
Think of the tuition teacher who says, 'First learn the formula, then forget where it came from — and then, one day, remember it properly.' That three-step journey is how all real learning travels.
Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. The idea has done its job if, the next time it happens to you, you smile before you react.