Great column. We always have to ask: “What do we hope to get out of our enterprise?” Money? Respect? Celebrity? Personal fulfillment?

If you’re a writer because you love to write and you believe you’re doing good work, the fact that you’re not making any money is almost irrelevant.

If you’re writing to make a living and you’re not making any money, the need to consider changing careers becomes more pressing.

You mentioned the “sunk cost fallacy.” Allied with that is the “People will think I’m a loser if I quit” argument which can be distilled into one word: “Pride.”

Why did the U.S. stay so long in Viet Nam? Pride.

“If I quit I’ll be admitting that I’m a failure” is the argument, which ignores the fact that you’re a failure because you failed, not because you quit. Quitting only ends the pain and allows you to move on.

— David Grace