Just Don't Do It: The Hidden Virtues of Quitting

In 2016, Alex Honnold wanted to climb the most famous rock in the world, Yosemite's El Capitan. He planned to do it without any ropes or assistance whatsoever. If he fell, he would die. One of his friends invested serious time and money into forging a film crew and making a documentary out of the attempt. A month before winter, Honnold sprained his ankle. After a partial recovery, he tried to make the climb but turned around before finishing.

He quit.

It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Imagine how much disappointment he felt. Imagine the pressure to keep going, given everything he and his friend had invested. When the influencers tell you quitting is easy, they’re not thinking about those Alex Honnold moments. Quitting takes discipline.

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once said most of humanity’s problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone. He also probably noticed that people are really, really bad at quitting when they should. Imagine how much better the world would be if people could learn when to quit.

The entire problem behind endless growth capitalism is that the super rich think profits should keep going up forever, the population should keep expanding forever, and humanity is destined to colonize space. It’s all rooted in a pathological cultural fear of tapering off, achieving equilibrium, pulling back, holding steady, and employing caution. Political scientists and psychologists have spent decades researching quitting. They’ve learned fascinating things.

A year later, Alex Honnold tried again.