Opportunity Cost: The Price of Every Choice
Opportunity cost is the value of the best alternative you give up. Decca Records turned down the Beatles to save on travel. Kodak invented the digital...
What is this page about?
An explainer of opportunity cost, the value of the best alternative given up by any choice, opening with Decca Records rejecting the Beatles in 1962 partly to save on travel costs. It presents a taxonomy of cost types, why humans systematically ignore opportunity costs, and four historical case studies (Xerox and the GUI, Kodak and the digital camera, Decca and the Beatles, and Nokia-Microsoft-Android), then applies the framework to career decisions, organizational strategy, and everyday money, with the intellectual lineage and failure modes.
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Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.
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178 million is only the RIAA-certified U.S. total; worldwide Beatles record sales are commonly estimated at ~600 million or more.
Beforewent on to sell 178 million records
Afterwent on to sell more than 600 million records
Why: Corrected undercount: 178 million is only the RIAA-certified U.S. total; worldwide Beatles record sales are commonly estimated at 600 million or more. Verified already live in body content; FAQ had no mention of this figure.
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