sunk-cost

A cost already paid and unrecoverable. The sunk cost fallacy is the error of letting that spent cost steer future decisions — continuing a failing project, staying in a relationship, polishing a work past its time — because walking away feels like wasting what was invested (Wikipedia: Sunk cost, read 2026-06-18).

At the doorstep of a finished work, the sunk cost tightens: the more the work cost to build, the heavier it is to release into the world where it may fail. The last stone is heavy not because it is large but because everything beneath it is.