Principlev1PR-1121
Retire cognitive agents based on current value production…
Retire cognitive agents based on current value production rather than sunk investment, as maintaining low-impact agents due to past effort compounds resource drain through the endowment effect and status quo bias.
Why This Is a Principle
This derives from Humans escalate commitment to failing courses of action… (sunk cost escalation), People disproportionately stick with default options even… (default option stickiness), and Humans systematically prefer to be consistent… (commitment to previous decisions). It prescribes evaluating agents on present value rather than past investment. Strong principle because it directly addresses known cognitive biases, is clearly actionable, and applies broadly to any resource allocation decision.