42 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS 9 Escalation of Commitment ("sunk cost" fallacy)--the ten- dency to continue or increase commitment to an endeavor based on prior investment of money, time, and energy. Startup founders may refuse to abandon a losing strategy in an attempt to preserve whatever value has been created up to that point. Paul Graham, accomplished entrepreneur (Via- web) and investor (Y Combinator), refers to this phenome- non as the "still life effect," based on his experience as a painter. He noticed his tendency to continue painting a poorly arranged composition (a bunch of stuff "plonked" on a table) simply because of the time already invested in the project. This parallels a common approach among startup teams. "You come up with a random idea, plunge into it, and then at each point (a day, a week, a month) feel you've put so much time into it that this must be the idea . . . Plunging into an idea is a good thing. The solution is at the other end: to realize that having invested time in something doesn't make 13