FOR OBAMITES, ADVICE YOU CAN USE: How To Walk Away: The psychology of lost causes. “Most of us know what it’s like to stay in a job or a relationship after it’s stopped being satisfying, or to take on a project that’s too big and be reluctant to admit it. . . . The costs to a person who does not know when to quit can be enormous. In economics it’s known as sunk cost fallacy, though the costs are more than financial. While we recognize the fallacy almost immediately in others, it’s harder to see in ourselves.”