[tptacek]

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.

[candiddevmike]

You're leaving out how much it costs to pull the lever, both in time and money.

[Dylan16807]

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.