I agree with you on this, but I also don’t think “sunk cost fallacy” isn’t the right word to describe what you’re saying. The rational behavior here is to factor in the existence of a random error term resulting from mood swings into these calculations, and if you can’t fully factor it in, then generally err on the side of keeping projects going. I understand “sunk cost fallacy” to mean “factoring in the amount of effort already spent into these decisions,” which does seem like a pure fallacy to me.
It’s reasonable e.g. when about to watch a movie to say “I’m in a bad mood, I don’t know how bad a mood I’m in, so even though I think the movie’s not worth watching, I’ll watch it anyway because I don’t trust my assessment and I decided to watch it when in a calmer state of mind.” Sunk cost fallacy is where you treat it differently if you bought yourself the tickets versus if they were given to you as a gift, which does seem, even in your apology for “sunk cost fallacy,” to remain a fallacy.
I agree with you on this, but I also don’t think “sunk cost fallacy” isn’t the right word to describe what you’re saying. The rational behavior here is to factor in the existence of a random error term resulting from mood swings into these calculations, and if you can’t fully factor it in, then generally err on the side of keeping projects going. I understand “sunk cost fallacy” to mean “factoring in the amount of effort already spent into these decisions,” which does seem like a pure fallacy to me.
It’s reasonable e.g. when about to watch a movie to say “I’m in a bad mood, I don’t know how bad a mood I’m in, so even though I think the movie’s not worth watching, I’ll watch it anyway because I don’t trust my assessment and I decided to watch it when in a calmer state of mind.” Sunk cost fallacy is where you treat it differently if you bought yourself the tickets versus if they were given to you as a gift, which does seem, even in your apology for “sunk cost fallacy,” to remain a fallacy.