Remembering our choices as better than they actually were

The expensive software becomes a small autobiography once you have championed it. So does the car you stretched to afford, the restaurant you insisted was worth the train journey and the kitchen gadget occupying a cupboard with imperial confidence. Criticism of the choice arrives uncomfortably close to criticism of the chooser. Faults receive explanations; modest benefits receive a brass band. The unused features become a “training challenge”. The noisy car has “character”. The spiraliser remains poised for a lifestyle that starts next week. Even a disappointing holiday improves in the retelling once you chose the hotel and persuaded everybody else to come.

Commitment has value. Difficult projects possess an awkward middle, tools take time to learn and anyone reopening every decision on Monday will achieve little beyond exhausting the household. Loyalty becomes delusion when every outcome proves the original choice wise. Success means continue. Failure means invest more. Complete irrelevance apparently means the world has yet to appreciate our foresight. A belief that wins whatever happens has stopped describing reality and started protecting its owner.

Decide what disappointment looks like before ownership bends the view. Write down the result, date and evidence that would justify stopping. Let somebody whose identity stayed out of the purchase inspect it. Make exit an ordinary act instead of a televised confession of stupidity. At the review, ask the cleanest question available: knowing what we know now, would we buy it again?