📚 Know when to fold 'em!

We’re into our second weekend of this month’s book and we sure hope you haven’t quit on it yet!

We’re a few chapters into Quit by Annie Duke, and it’s already turning out to be a fascinating look at how we make decisions and, more importantly, how we unmake them.

Duke argues that quitting isn’t the opposite of perseverance, it’s a critical skill that separates smart decision-makers from stubborn ones. The blend of excellent story telling alongside some deep and critical thinking around the idea of quitting makes this an essential read for anyone.

If you’ve not yet picked this one up, we highly recommend you do!

It’s definitely one to hold!

Here are three standout ideas from the first quarter of the book:

Most of us grow up believing that quitting means giving up. Duke turns that idea on its head. She argues that knowing when to quit is actually a sign of wisdom and self-awareness. The best decision makers do not stick with every plan until the bitter end. Instead, they assess what is and is not working, and have the courage to change direction. Quitting can free us to invest our time, energy and talent in things that have a better chance of success.

Once we have poured effort, money or emotion into something, it becomes very hard to let it go. This is what Duke calls the “sunk cost fallacy”. We continue because we feel we owe it to our past selves, even when the evidence shows the path ahead is unlikely to improve. Recognising sunk costs for what they are (costs that are already gone) allows us to make cleaner, more rational choices about where to focus next.

Duke introduces the idea of creating “kill criteria”, or in simpler terms, clear signals that tell us when it is time to walk away. These might include measurable goals, deadlines or specific conditions that help us step back before emotion or ego cloud our judgement. Having this clarity in advance makes quitting far less daunting and helps us move on with confidence rather than regret.

Here are some great resources that Annie Duke has put out it to the world if you’re thirsty for more!

We’re building an incredible community over on our Bad Ass Bookshelf Discord channel where over 110 of you have joined in the fun (it’s free BTW).

Here are some of the chats we’ve been having:

We're so excited to host our next Bad Ass Bookshelf bookclub call to discuss Quit at the end of October! Call details below:

Date: 30th October
Time: 17:00 GMT (12:00 EST / 09:00 PST)

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