Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2012

How Understanding Sunk Costs Saved Me Valuable Time and Energy

I was on my way home from campus the other day, at the campus train station waiting for my train to arrive. I always take whichever train comes first, and I am indifferent between paying a price of Rp 8000 for the comfy air-conditioned Comutter Line or just Rp 1500 for the more proletarian economy class. As the ticket guy had told me that the next train to come would be the Comutter Line, I bought the ticket and went on to wait on the platform for the train to arrive.  Every comutter reading this knows that information in our electric railway system is hardly ever reliable. The information guy on the speakerphone says that the next train to arrive would be the economy class. There is no information as to when the Comutter Line train I was supposed to take would arrive. By this time, I had already went up and stood on the far end of the platform, far away from the ticket counter.  I had now two options: (1) make a really quick run back and ask or a ticket switch and a