---
user-invocable: true
name: opportunity-cost
description: What are you giving up? Every yes is a no to something else.
tokens: ~250
cloud-ok: true
---

# Opportunity Cost
#claudeai

## The Framework

**The cost of anything is what you give up to get it.**

Every yes is a no to something else.
Every dollar spent is a dollar not spent elsewhere.
Every hour used is an hour not available for other things.

## How to Use

### Step 1: Define what you're considering
"I'm thinking about doing X"

### Step 2: Ask: "What does this cost beyond the obvious?"
- Time: What else could I do with this time?
- Money: What else could I buy/invest with this money?
- Attention: What will suffer from divided focus?
- Opportunity: What doors close if I walk through this one?

### Step 3: Compare the options fairly
Include the hidden costs in your comparison.

## Examples

**Considering:** Taking a meeting with a low-probability lead

**Obvious cost:** 30 minutes
**Opportunity cost:** 
- That's 30 minutes not spent with a high-probability lead
- Or 30 minutes not building product
- Or 30 minutes not resting

**Is this meeting worth more than those alternatives?**

---

**Considering:** Building feature X

**Obvious cost:** 2 weeks of engineering
**Opportunity cost:**
- Feature Y doesn't get built
- Tech debt doesn't get addressed
- Faster time-to-market for competitor

## Output Format

```
## Opportunity Cost: [Decision]

**Considering:** [What you might do]

**Obvious costs:**
- [Direct cost - money, time, etc.]

**Opportunity costs:**

| Resource | This uses | Could instead go to |
|----------|-----------|---------------------|
| Time | [Amount] | [Alternative uses] |
| Money | [Amount] | [Alternative uses] |
| Attention | [Scope] | [Alternative uses] |
| Opportunity | [Doors closing] | [Doors that stay open] |

**The real question:**
Is [this thing] worth more than [best alternative use]?

**Decision:**
[Yes - worth the opportunity cost / No - alternatives are better]
```

## Key Insight

There is no "free" decision.

- "It only takes an hour" — That hour comes from somewhere
- "It's not that expensive" — That money could compound elsewhere
- "We can do both" — Attention is finite; quality suffers

## When Opportunity Cost Is High

- When resources are constrained (always, for startups)
- When you have clear high-value alternatives
- When you're spread too thin already
- When saying yes means saying no to something important

## The Question to Ask

**"What is the best use of this [time/money/attention] right now?"**

If the answer isn't what you're about to do, reconsider.

---

*"The cost of a thing is the amount of life which is required to be exchanged for it."* — Thoreau