Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner, and we have got a bonus episode for you today.

The roots of this one go back to 2023 when we published a four-part series called How to

Succeed at Failing.

One of the hardest questions we asked was, how do you know when it's time to give up on

something?

It's a question of what kind of resources you have, what's your tolerance for pain, what are the

alternatives. There's that kind of reluctance to admit that you've wasted all of these resources.

The problem is that quitting is usually seen as an admission of failure.

I would argue that view needs a serious rethink.

Some quitting is productive if it keeps you sane or keeps you from wasting time.

And then there's quitting while you're ahead, while you're way, way ahead, like David DCovey did.

That was the biggest success I could ever quit.

I mean, like a global phenomenon of a show.

DuCovey is, among other things, an actor, and the TV show he quit was The X-files.

Some critics say it is the show that most shaped modern TV.

I just knew that I had done everything I could in that format.

It felt like it was going to be my whole life at that point.

If I went any longer, I was going to be doing karaoke me, whatever that was.

So it was like a life-saving thing for me to do it.

DuCovny didn't quit acting, but he did spread out.

Music, writing, parenting. quit acting but he did spread out music writing parenting and recently he started a

podcast it's called fail better now why make an entire show about failure? Here's why. I don't think I've ever learned

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