Escalation of commitment turns past decisions into future pressure. The more time, money, and reputation tied up in the roadmap, the harder it becomes to stop and admit the user needs something else.

pretty much

your brain hates blank space, so it fills it with the nearest sample: you

Barry Staw described escalation of commitment in 1976.

it’s like cooking for the loudest person at the table and calling it customer research

annoyingly, no

asking helps, but the chapter is warning you about the gap between what feels true and what survives contact

TL;DR: Escalation of commitment turns past decisions into future pressure. The more time, money, and reputation tied up in the roadmap, the harder it becomes to…

yep. the commitment starts doing the thinking is the trap door

then it shows up as the fbi kept serving the project

In April 2005, the FBI abandoned it without deploying it.

make the hidden assumption visible before the review starts

then test the behavior, not just whether the room nods

and if a choice only works for informed, patient, caffeinated people, treat that as a bug

that’s the series tbh

design psychology is mostly noticing the human nonsense before it ships

deal. hydrate first