What nobody tells you
- The discomfort of changing your mind is often more about managing other people's perception of you than about the decision itself.
- Sunk costs feel like loyalty in the moment, but loyalty to a decision that no longer serves you isn't a virtue.
- People respect a well-explained change of mind more than a stubbornly defended bad call, even though it doesn't feel that way beforehand.
The basics
- A decision is a bet made with the information available at the time. New information legitimately changes the correct bet.
- Integrity means staying true to your values and reasoning process, not staying true to a specific past conclusion.
- The sunk cost fallacy makes past investment feel like a reason to continue, when only future costs and benefits should count.
The framework
Process over position
Judge yourself on whether you reasoned well given what you knew at each point in time, not on whether your conclusion stayed the same.
- 01
What did I know when I made the original decision?
- 02
What's actually new — new information, or just new discomfort?
- 03
Would I make the original decision again today, with today's information?
The playbook
The conversation — what to actually say
Telling a team you've changed your recommendation
“Based on what I knew last month, this was the right call. Given what we've learned since, I think we should go a different direction, and here's why.”
Someone accuses you of flip-flopping
“I'd rather be right than consistent. Here's what changed since I said that.”
The mistakes — what people get wrong
- Changing your mind so frequently that no one can build on your positions — some stability is genuinely valuable.
- Reversing a decision purely because it's become uncomfortable, without any actual new information.
- Publicly announcing every private doubt before you've actually worked through whether it's a real update.
- Using 'I changed my mind' as cover for never having thought it through in the first place.
Ask yourself
- What do I actually know now that I didn't know when I made this decision?
- Am I holding this position because it's right, or because reversing it feels like losing?
- Would I make this same choice again today, from scratch?
Go deeper
- Book
Think Again — Adam Grant
On the value of rethinking and the discomfort of being wrong.
- Concept
Sunk cost fallacy
The core bias behind most refusals to update, worth understanding by name.
- Practice
The reasoning statement
Practice stating what changed, not just what your new conclusion is.
General educational information, not legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. Rules vary by country and change over time — verify with a qualified professional before acting.