byrnema comments on The Cognitive Costs to Doing Things - Less Wrong
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For me, item #7 "Maintenance costs from the idea re-emerging in your thoughts" is the most significant cost.
A 'train of thought' does seem to be like a 'train', requiring energy to get going and then requiring energy to slow down. I know that at a given time, I'll be thinking about whatever I've recently worked on thinking about, heavily weighted by how recently I've done this work.
I frequently consider this cost, especially in connection with opportunity cost, because even though occasionally I know it may not take me much time or energy to get started thinking about something -- for example, on a topic I'm naturally interested in -- I know it will be difficult to focus on something else later. It will also cause me undue anxiety if I have time to get started but don't have time to complete it.