Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

by Annie Duke

'Brilliant and entertaining' Daniel Kahneman | 'Quit what you are doing right now and read this' Richard Thaler | 'Engrossing, important, and grounded in science' Katy Milkman

What if the secret to success is not just hard work, but knowing when to change track?

In this game-changing guide, decision-making expert Annie Duke shows why quitting what holds you back is essential for success. Drawing on new research and fascinating examples, this book offers practical strategies and

Why it's so hard to walk away
How to identify when it's best to persevere or pivot
How quitting on time often feels like quitting too early

Packed with insights from athletes, start-up founders and entertainers, Quit breaks down the mental model that keeps us from walking away and provides a toolkit for quitting anything - a career, a marriage, an investment - at the perfect time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Business, Self Help, Personal Development, Audiobook, Leadership

8 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Annie is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is also a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute. In 2020, she joined the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative.

Reviews

[William T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quickly reviewing the reviews, I am not certain that every reader focuses on the real point of this book. It is a good book that explores some old terrain, covered in a new way, and some new terrain that is important for those of us making commitments of one sort or another.

It is by no means, as one reviewer suggested, a self-help book. Ms Duke is too much of a scientist for that. Should recognition of one more component of decision making help us? Of course. But I don't think Ms Duke set out to write a best selling self-help book. I think that her goal was to say "here are a few of the obvious psychological speed bumps that we commonly hit on our way to intelligent decisions. If you can keep the possibility of those decisions traps in mind, you may find your way to a more productive process, and even possibly, a higher "expected value" to your decisions."

I think she accomplishes that, and the book will remain on my list of books to return to, again.

[Brittany McCann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great advice, but there are only so many ways that you can say the same thing.

It starts to get tedious and repetitive.

3 Stars

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not enjoy this one; it was very repetitive and seemed like an overly padded blog post. This is also one of those books where the author chooses studies to support their theses but only provides high level descriptions, which always makes me wonder how well the study was designed and if the results might've been misconstrued or misrepresented. Impossible to tell from the descriptions.

About halfway through the book I started to question if all this was by design, like some sort of meta concept to try to force me to quit reading, thereby proving the author's point that humans are bad at knowing when to quit? That would've been hilarious and awesome to have that be the last chapter. Like, wow, you're still here? But no, it was just a poorly written book.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there is a major distinction between when to quit and when to stick. During my years in top notch grad school working towards my phd I have seen people who quit too often and people who should have quit a lot sooner. Listening to the author and looking back at my experience I would say it probably come down to two points 1 have you thought it thru? It doesn’t guarantee you to make a right decision but it allows you to deal with the consequences better (either quitting or not) 2 what is at stake? And what are the odds you can make it? If it is something at high stakes and probability is not at your favor, (eg like gambling or building a startup) quit asap when things go sour

A few take away from the author
Have a kill criteria, which is about setting a milestone to hit with a deadline attached; thinking ahead of what signs one might see as things going poorly/well

One favorite quo”we tend to be more rational when you are thinking ahead than we are actually at the moment

[Makmild · Rating 4 out of 5]

เป็นหนังสือที่ดีมาก แบบดีมากๆๆๆ เลยด้วย แค่ไม่ชอบวิธีการเขียน ถ้าเขียนให้น้ำเยอะแบบนี้และสนุกให้ไปดู Morgan Housel แต่ถ้าเขียนให้น้ำเยอะและเนิร์ดก็ไปดูทาเล็บ แอนนี่อยู่ตรงกลางระหว่างสองคนนี้ แต่ไม่เป็นไร หนังสือมันดีจริงๆ อยากให้คนที่ลังเลกับบางสิ่งว่าควรไปต่อหรือหยุดแค่นี้ได้อ่าน

เวลามีคนเลิกทำบางสิ่งบางอย่าง บางคนจะคิดว่ามันคืออาการเหยียบขี้ไก่ไม่ฟ่อ จับจด หรือพยายามไม่มากพอ แอนนี่ เซียนโป๊กเกอร์จะมาบอกว่า มันไม่ใช่อย่างนั้นทั้งหมด และการ ”เลิกทำ“ ไม่ได้หมายถึงล้มเหลว บางครั้งมันอาจจะเป็นการตัดสินใจที่ดีที่สุดด้วยซ้ำ ด้วยการยกตัวอย่างคนดังมากมาย สมการอีกเล็กน้อย และหนังสือที่เกี่ยวข้อง พร้อมกับประสบการณ์ส่วนตัว

ซึ่งเราว่าน่าเชื่อถือสุดๆ โป๊กเกอร์คือเกมไพ่จิตวิทยา และการชนะเกมโป๊กเกอร์ไม่ใช่การชนะแค่ตาเดียว การหมอบก็เป็นอีกหนึ่งกลยุทธ์ที่ใช้ได้ในเกมระยะยาว

และชีวิตเป็นเกมระยะยาว

ส่วนตัวแล้ว เราชอบเรื่องนี้ในหนังสือที่สุด คือ ค่าคาดหมาย (EV - Expected Value)

ส่วนประโยคข้างล่างคือท้ายเล่มที่เราแบบ โอโห มันใช่

“โดยทั่วไป เวลาเราล้มเลิก เรากลัวอยู่ 2 สิ่ง คือ การที่เราล้มเหลว และการที่เราเสียเวลา ความพยายาม หรือเงินทองไปโดยเปล่าประโยชน์“
“การสูญเปล่าเป็นปัญหาที่มองไปข้างหน้า ไม่ใช่ปัญหาที่มองเหลียวหลัง”

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd read:
This is one of my all-time favorite books by one of my favorite authors. This book just came out last year, and I loved it so much that I already gave it another read. There are an endless amount of books out there telling you to keep pushing and never give up, but I always wanted a book that talks about when you need to walk away and quit wasting your time. Annie Duke does such a fantastic job explaining why “quit” needs to stop being seen in a bad light, the psychology of why it’s difficult for us to give up and what we can do to make better decisions and walk away when it’s necessary.

And just a fun side note: I actually decided to read this book again because I was reading some hustle culture self-help book for entrepreneurs that kept saying throughout the book to never give up, but the reality is, some people have bad ideas or bad products or just bad luck, and they need to stop wasting time, money and resources.

Go out and read this book if you haven’t yet. I’m adding it to the list of books I want to read with my son.


1st read:
I don’t have words to describe how much I loved this book, but I’ll give it a try. I was fortunate enough to get an early review copy of Annie Duke’s latest book, and I binged it over the weekend. Annie’s original book Thinking in Bets was the first book to introduce me to cognitive psych and better thinking, and I’ve been in love with the topic ever since. The problem is that there are so many books on making decisions, but so few of them dedicate any time to discussing when to quick. The second I heard Annie was writing this book, I had to read it.

Annie does an incredible job discussing the importance of quitting and makes clear that we need to get rid of our preconceived ideas that quitting is a sign of failure. As usual, throughout the book, in addition to discussing studies and research, she gives real-life examples. In some cases, people could have died had they not quit.

I’m someone who is constantly working on new projects and doing multiple side hustles, so opportunity costs are a big deal to me. Annie’s book is everything I could have hoped for and more, and now I have some better strategies for choosing when to quit. While there are definitely studies she references that people will be familiar with, she makes them feel fresh by discussing how we can use this information to know when to quit.

[Adam Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

"You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run. Notice that three of those four things are about quitting. When it comes to the importance of cutting your losses at poker, Rogers got it." Author Annie Duke shows in this well researched and accessible book that the best decision-makers are the best quitters. Quitting is hard. Quitting means being ok with not knowing how things may have turned out. So bad are we at quitting that when we do quit on time, it will feel like we have quit too early. Yet ours is a culture that celebrates "sticking at it"; nobody celebrates the people who turn around when the summit was in sight. We all know to watch out for the sunk costs fallacy - yet studies show knowledge of this fallacy confers little immunity to it. When we quit something we often stop tracking how it goes - and so we deprive ourselves of half the information relevant to our decisions.
Despite being a well written book on an interesting topic, I'm just not a huge fan of this genre; I find they can get repetitive and I get tired of the anecdotes that begin every chapter. This book was no exception - I wondered several times whether I should quit. Anyway, I’m torn on whether or not to recommend this book. It helpfully diagnoses why we are so bad at quitting and yet perhaps I should have quit or just read the summaries at the end of each chapter. Sunk costs fallacy perhaps?

[simona.citeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

O carte musai de citit. Mi se pare că încă se vorbește prea puțin despre renunțare și că imaginea pe care o avem despre ea este foarte greșită.

Nu încurajează abandonul ci renunțarea atunci când într-adevăr este cazul, pentru că este cazul mai des decât o credem noi.
Lucrurile se schimbă constant și asta ar trebui să facem și noi cu obiectivele. De exemplu, atunci când începi un nou orice, știi destul de puține lucruri despre asta; peste 1 lună să zicem, dispui de mai multe informații și poți lua o decizie având la dispoziție mai multe detalii. Acum e momentul să decizi dacă merită să continui sau să renunți.

Sunt multe exemple și multe idei foarte bune. Am scăzut o stea pentru că eu personal mi-am dorit să nu fie îndreptată atât de mult spre sfera profesională; voiam ceva mai multe situații obișnuite.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging enough; however, I am not certain there was enough content here for an entire book.

A couple of interesting things:

1) Her take on failed prophecies and sunk cost fallacies and how people rationalize sticking with something (such as a doomsday cult) despite proof it is wrong (when the predicted doomsday passes without incident). I could for sure see that in my family (Jehovah’s Witnesses). Despite predictions failing and policies changing, they still believe it is “the truth” and find signs everywhere to confirm. Every policy pivot is “the light getting brighter.”

2) Learning that in the past, if you called someone a quitter, they could challenge you to a duel. This happened to President Andrew Jackson, and he killed a man before he became president. So, historically, quitting has always been seen as extremely negative. But sometimes, it is the best choice, and it frees up time and resources to pursue a better path.

[Travis Scher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only found the first half insightful, and my key takeaway was that “quitting on time will look and feel like quitting too early” - because doing so requires the foresight to identify what will go wrong in the future, and the courage to give up before it does. So don’t wait until its painfully obvious you’re on the wrong path; if you think you might be taking a dumb risk to hit a “goal”, suffering from sunk cost bias, doubling down to save face, or simply unwilling to admit you were wrong, take a very hard look at where you’re headed, and consider giving up.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

This was a well written, interesting case for the many reasons people need to reconsider the benefits of quitting early when something is costing them more than its worth (time, money, happiness, etc). The author presents a series of examples supporting her thesis, from Mount Everest climbers who failed to turn back in time to Mohammed Ali who retired too late, among many others. Recommended for fans of Malcolm Gladwell or anyone struggling with a job that is making them unhappy and need help finding the courage to quit. Good on audio.

[Mikala · Rating 5 out of 5]

The content in this book was truly deeply enlightening. This has given me so much to digest. "Success does not lie in sticking to things. But in sticking to the right things and quitting the rest."

The negative connotation that comes from the word Quit. People's refusal to use the word quit. Instead, using words such as "pivot" or "start a new chapter". De-stigmatize the negative connotation around the word quit!!!!
"The Voldemort treatment... the word that must not be named." LOL

I feel like you have to be intuitive to know when it is the right time to quit. And have like innate, trust in yourself, and that things will work out okay.

Amazing examples within this book of quitting:
• Mount Everest turn around time example.💯
• Poker players and optimal quitting example.
• Glitch/slack example.
• "The quitting bind"
• WOWWWWW ... SEARS example of quitting + identity. The cult of identity. This TOTALLY just reframed the idea of "identity" in my brain...I feel like this just unlocked something.
• "The sunk cost effect. This causes people to stay in situations that they should quit." "Escalated commitment " Entrapment, Alex Honnold free solo example.👏👏👏
• "We prefer the ILLUSION of progress" bullet train example. You could be devoting those resources to something else. Beware of false progress.
• "Kill criteria"
• The pass / fail problem of goals.

I really appreciate the chapter summaries as well, can more nonfiction books do this?! 🙏 ALL in ALL definitely one of those life changing reads that I will be coming back to!!!

[Marta.Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be compulsory reading in schools

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In August of 2023 I decided I had to quit a project that was eating away at my soul. I had put 15 months into it, and after each crisis I said "okay, now it will be smooth sailing". It never was. My continued medical problems and mental health were suffering severely. I was both elated and devastated to quit this responsibility. As is typical for me in my overthink-mode, I went to Google to search articles, podcasts, and books that would affirm my decision and decrease the panic. Then I found a podcast interviewing a former professional poker player about a book she wrote on the power of knowing when to walk away. She told the Mt Everest story. I was hooked. I immediately got it on audible. I ate this book up. Voraciously. I later bought it as a physical reminder of everything I read. Because your brain latches on to all kinds of fallicies to keep you from quitting when you need to. Even though much of it focused on business and professionals, it actually taught me a lot about myself. It feels so so silly to say it, but it was my favorite book of 2023. It was the epitome of the right book at the right time.

Side note: Mason had been watching a lot of poker on YouTube at the time. It was his special interest for a year or so. He scoffed when I first told him I read a book from a retired professional poker player, asking how much she had actually made. He looked her up and was significantly impressed. Annie Duke has won over 4 million in live poker tournaments, placing her at 4th highest. 💵 As a hyper-emotive person, live poker seems harder to me than an Olympic sport.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and revitalizing read. Quitting has a bad rap in our culture, but Duke uses real-world examples of everything from mountaineering to poker to show how quitting can let us redirect our energy from something that is failing to something that could succeed. She offers questions we should ask ourselves to assess whether it's time to quit or to double down, and what might make us change our minds one way or the other. Most of all, she gets into sunk cost-fallacy and other psychological pitfalls that cause us to hang on (to relationships, jobs, projects, and other commitments) long after we should let go and move on. I highly recommend it, and I'll definitely be rereading it.

[Al Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking book. Makes a reasoned argument against the hallowed trait of perseverance. Sometimes we can stick at something for too long due to all of the effort and resources we've invested into it instead of basing our decision on an honest assessment of its feasibility and future prospects- the 'sunk cost fallacy'. Well worth reading, offers some good decision making tools and a new perspective on decision making.

[Oskars Kaulēns · Rating 4 out of 5]

ļoti vērtīgi. par to, kad un kāpēc iesāktā pamešana ir vairāk vērta, nekā neatlaidīga turpināšana. par iemesliem, kāpēc ir grūti doties projām un kāpēc savu iespēju diversifikācijai būtu jākļūst par mūsu katra galveno uzdevumu.

[Chloë Dowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual choice - this is not a fiction. I felt in need of some guidance and actually found this overall helpful. It doesn't help you decide whether or not to quit something but gives the psychology and science behind quitting and definitely has helped shift my perspective/way of thinking. 'Quit' has very negative connotations when actually it can often be the most sensible move e.g. to prevent further losses. Lots of the examples cited were USA based, I would have related better to some know UK companies etc.

Key points I'll remember are to set criteria for quitting, attack the hardest challenge first (if that isn't achievable then no time will be wasted on the easier things), always explore alternatives even when current option is good (like ants do), and the right time to quit is often earlier than you think.

[Poovizhi Panpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book in the New Arrivals section of our public library. I picked it up because the title was intriguing. I never thought that the book would blow my mind.

My favourite lines from the book are "Grit is good for getting you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, but grit also gets you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile".

The book teaches you to look for signs to distinguish between things that are worthwhile and things that are no longer worthwhile. It essentially teaches you the skill of decision making.

As I finish it, I'm left with a feeling of wanting to know more. And I'm pleasantly surprised that a book I randomly chose made so much impact on me.

[Simona · Rating 1 out of 5]

*I’ve got this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review*

I’m sorry to say this, but I was very disappointed with this book. I couldn’t get past 15% of it.
It needs to be edited even more than it is now. The repetition of the same story in first 9% drove me crazy.
The writing style was so dry, that I would rather read a medical dictionary. It was a good remedy for insomnia.

Snd to think how excited I was to read this book…

[Nitin Vaidya · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a time and place for grit and one for quit as well!! A fascinating read and one which I will have to go through many times in the future!!

[Henry Manampiring · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it. I think everyone should read it. Helps make better life decisions.

[Amalia Baciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este despre alegeri , alegeri în termeni de valoare. Este greu sa renunti atunci când ești tare atașat, cand ai investit cu drag, pasiune si pentru ca ti-a placut, cand ai multe amintiri (bune si nebune). M-au ajutat povestile spuse de Annie, despre oameni curajosi care au reușit sa renunte si altii prea ambitiosi care s-au pierdut perseverand. Este o lectie de viata cand renunti, iar eu mai am multe de invatat.

[Vladislav Burda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Duke professional poker player and winner of several international events knows something about the quit.
But she gathered a lot of analytics and interesting material on the subject.

My favourite concept in this book is Monkeys and Pedestals.
Somebody smart in California invented start-up: distribute pedestals among parks or other public spaces, put monkeys on those pedestals who would juggles on them. This kind of show could gather a lot of money.
Company started investing in pedestals, but suddenly they found that monkeys who could juggle is the biggest scarce resource in that business. And all investments in pedestals is just sunk cost of the business.
Sunk cost creates commitment, which will push you to invest more.
But this mistake could be fixed only if you stop thinking about previous losses but start think about the future. If the future looks positively for you, without extra optimism, which destroyed a lot of hopes, it makes sense to invest.
In the end this business with the monkeys could become “monkey business”, if you will not define yours’s the most important resource and will not create the plan how to obtain it.

Another good concept is the path-fail frame of the goal.
Author tells the story of many sportsmen who run marathon, received the damage on the way, but finished the distance with very bad consequences for their health. This is the back side of any goal. Goal is fixed. If you should run 42,195 km but run only 30 km – the goal is not achieved, and you failed. In the fast-changing world we should escape fixed goals. Otherwise, we could find ourselves losers most of the time. Meanwhile if you think about 30 km, it’s still quite an achievement and better not to discount any achievements in your life.

About quitting concept author is giving interesting statistics. Absolute majority of those who quit (job, relationships, sport, you name it) feel themselves happier. Because people were much happier when they quit what they considered a close decision, that shows that people are generally quitting too late. So, if you have small margin between stay or leave – quitting is almost always the best option.

But when someone quits before it seems obvious to others, we mock them to quitting too earlier. That’s the quitting bind.

Another restriction for quitting is endowment effect. This is actually the main effect of ownership. When people own something, they often demand more to give up an object, then they will be willing to pay for acquire it.

Also, author warns you, that you should be very careful with deciding about your identity.
When your identity is what to do, then what you do becomes hard to abandon.

And the last idea which I admired a lot and restrain us from quitting is that worldly wisdom teaches us that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.

[Petruta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Câteva idei culese din carte:

-dacă renunți la timp, vei simți de obicei că ai renunțat prea devreme;

-cel mai greu moment de a lua o decizie de renunțare este când ești în situația respectivă;

-dacă simți că decizia între a persevera și a te îndepărta este la limită, probabil că este mai bine să renunți;

-când decidem dacă să continuăm sau să renunțăm, ne temem că, dacă renunțăm, vom fi irosit resursele pe care le-am consumat pentru această încercare;

-efectul costurilor irecuperabile determină oamenii să continue în situații în care ar trebui să renunțe;

-nu ne place să închidem conturi mintale în pierdere;

-efectul deținerii este un bias cognitiv în care prețuim un lucru pe care-l deținem mai mult decât dacă nu l-am deține;

-ne putem atașa de obiecte, dar și de propriile idei și credințe;

-temerile cu privire la felul în care ne vor privi ceilalți dacă renunțăm sunt adeseori exagerate;

-viața e prea scurtă ca să-ți petreci timpul cu ocazii care nu mai merită;

-când cineva privește din afară de obicei vede situația mai rațional decât tine;

-când ești obligat să renunți, trebuie să explorezi noi opțiuni și ocazii, însă ar trebui să faci acest lucru înainte să fii forțat;

-planurile de rezervă sunt utile mai ales pentru că unele dintre ele se dovedesc a fi mai bune decât ceea ce faci deja;

-obiectivele ne pot ajuta să realizăm lucruri care merită, dar pot spori și șansele să ne amplificăm angajamentul când ar trebui să renunțăm;

-în general, când renunțăm, ne temem de două lucruri: că am eșuat și că am pierdut timpul, efortul și banii;

-pierderile sunt o problemă de privit înainte, nu înapoi. 

Dacă și tu ai probleme când trebuie să abandonezi, aceasta este cartea care te va ajuta. Persistăm în relații sau în cariere care nu ne satisfac pentru că în fața deciziilor dificile ne e teribil să renunțăm. Acest lucru ne ține pe loc.

Este foarte important să fii perseverent și să știi să lupți pentru visul tău, dar este la fel de important să știi când să renunți. Credem că a renunța este un eșec, dar nu întotdeauna.

[Anton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audible version is great!

The monkey and the pedestal is a memorable analogy. See here as well: https://blog.x.company/tackle-the-mon...

Related books:
- Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
- Think Like a Freak
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
- Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was really insightful about human biases towards sticking with a losing cause too long, due to loss aversion and fear of missing out on improbable gains.

Contrary to perceived wisdom about the importance of grit and perseverance.

I found the parts about the importance of kill criteria and doing the hard things first so as to fail fast very enlightening.

One to refer back to and bear in mind whenever making decisions - remember that deciding to put off making a change is not deferring a decision but making a decision to stick with the status quo!

Summary - Life is too short to spend time on things that aren't worthwhile so keep continually reassessing and applying new information. Contrary to popular belief, winners quit a lot and change direction - they don't stubbornly pursue lost causes.

Highly recommended.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10. I read this book and thought "why did it take someone so long to write this?" There was very little that was new in this book, but it's framed well. You'll find Kahneman and Thaler and other research that is cited in hundreds of books, but this book knits it together in a story about quitting.

I folded down a lot of corners on the first two sections of the book, but only one in the third.

I loved Grit by Angela Dunkworth, and this pairs nicely. The books don't actually contradict each other.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the book title/cover fool you, this one isn't self-helpy. Based on cognitive behavioral research, analysis and case studies, the author gives us the ways in which the human psyche naturally avoids quitting, and the telltale signs of when you should quit pursuing something. As someone who struggles with indecision, the main takeaway for me was learning to focus on the "expected value" of how a choice will effect your life both in the present and in the future, and to revisit the choices you've made periodically to see if the costs and benefits still hold true for you.

[Poetic Diva504 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the advice given in this book I DNF because it only took one chapter to drive the point home. This book could have been cut down 80% with no risk of taking away from the moral of the story. The only reason I gave 3 stars to a book I only read 10% of is because all the nuggets are at the beginning of the book. The rest is repetitive with case studies I really don’t need since I have my own life experience to draw off of.