How Do We Know When To Quit?

A story of hope, humanity and the one cognitive bias that can help us hang on to our dreams

Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Saint John the Baptist (1513–1516) from Wikipedia

This week, a reader emailed and said he’s thinking of selling his guitars. He wrote over thirty lyrics for one album but he trashed most of them and didn’t release any.

He wrote one for a friend’s album and it got released but all he can think of is how he’d do it different, if he could do it over.

He’s so critical of his own creative work, he said.

So he thinks maybe he should just quit.

He said he’s reasonably confident in his writing, but there’s still a million questions. Is the topic interesting? Did he go deep enough? So many questions that constantly drill through his brain.

God I love heartfelt letters from readers. They make me think. You know? Like, really deeply think.

Let me tell you an odd story. I think you’ll like where it goes.

You’ve probably heard of Dunning-Kruger. It’s a cognitive bias. A cognitive bias is a systemic pattern of deviating from rational thinking.

There’s always a trigger. Followed by the deviation from rational.