In *Can't Let Go*, author Simon Blackwood explores the sunk cost fallacy-the hidden mechanism that keeps
us funding failing ventures long after every rational signal says stop. Rather than offering generic advice about
"cutting your losses," this book uncovers why even experienced decision-makers-engineers, executives,
investors, military strategists-continue pouring resources into projects, relationships, and strategies that havealready demonstrably failed.
Drawing on behavioral science and organizational psychology, Simon Blackwood reveals how the same
cognitive error operates across seven independently documented cases: from the Concorde supersonic jet
program that became synonymous with the fallacy itself, to a $6 billion nuclear plant that never sold a single
watt of electricity, to a pharmaceutical trial that kept enrolling despite discouraging results, to a nine-year war
and a marriage both sustained by what had already been invested rather than what remained possible.
- Why a trader on a modern floor-designed for instant, unemotional repricing-still holds a losing position
longer than a winning one
- The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant: sixteen years of construction, full-power testing in 1986,
decommissioned in 1989 without ever entering commercial operation
- How the Concorde flew paying passengers for the first time in 1976-years after the financial catastrophe
was obvious to everyone involved
- The distinction between the sunk cost fallacy and loss aversion, and why confusing them makes the bias
harder to escape
- What a criminal prosecution, a pharmaceutical trial, and a corporate technology strategy have in common
when the case for continuing has evaporated