Comment by tptacek
5 hours ago
If you had a machine with a lever, and 7 times out of 10 when you pulled that lever nothing happened, and the other 3 times it spat a $5 bill at you, would your immediate next step be:
(1) throw the machine away
(2) put it aside and call a service rep to come find out what's wrong with it
(3) pull the lever incessantly
I only have one undergrad psych credit (it's one of my two college credits), but it had something to say about this particular thought experiment.
You're leaving out how much it costs to pull the lever, both in time and money.
If we're making a reasonable analogy, then successful pulls cost much less than $5 of time and money.
If the analogy is comparing to downtime, then unsuccessful pulls cost basically nothing.