Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you with your most important job being a dad.

These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy, by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

They can teach you about this. A kid will demand you get the puzzles down from the shelf,

only to change their mind halfway through.

They'll beg you to go into the pool, to get all ready, to jump in, and then move on immediately to the next thing that interests them.

They'll interrupt themselves mid-story to tell a different one.

They'll change the channel just as the movie has started to get going.

They'll switch from soccer to baseball after three years of training and switch their major halfway through college. Now to a parent, this is

maddening. You just put all this time and energy in. You made me put all this time and energy

in. Why would you throw it all away? But kids implicitly seem to understand this thing

called the sunk cost fallacy better than parents. A rational person knows that what went into something,

what you paid for it, the time you put into it, is irrelevant the second after it happens.

But a responsible adult, we can't seem to forget all of that.

It seems insane. And that's why we continue to work the same job we've had for years, why we stick with

the relationships long after they've run their course, even why we still live in the same town

that we grew up in. And just as we teach our kids,

our kids can teach us. When it comes to sunk costs, our kids show us how to be fearless.

They show us how to embrace change to chase our interests. They know it's never too late to try

something new. They know that the way things have always been done is not an excuse. And they know

that life is about moving forward. Let them show you this. Let them loosen you up. Follow their lead.

Don't get stuck in your ways. Don't throw good money after bad. Don't turn quality time into actual garbage time. Try a new thing.

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