What is when to quit a commitment?

When to quit a commitment is a concept in personal epistemology: Past investment does not justify continuing a commitment that no longer serves you.

Example: You have spent two years building a side project — evenings, weekends, savings. The technology shifted, the market moved, and honest assessment tells you the project has no realistic path to the outcome you originally wanted. But every time you consider walking away, your mind calculates the cost: 700 hours, $4,000, relationships you neglected to make time for it. So you keep going. Not because the future looks promising, but because the past feels too expensive to abandon. You are not investing in a project anymore. You are paying rent on a sunk cost — and the rent is your present-tense life.

This concept is part of Phase 34 (Commitment Architecture) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for commitment architecture.