In management and life, I have failed many times. There is something that I want, something that’s important to me, but what I’m trying isn’t working. Persistence is an admirable trait, but sometimes the right thing to do is to give up.

We have a product generating job recommendations. The product seemed to be getting adequate results when examined in isolation. However, when we tried a blackout test, where the whole product was disabled, we discovered that the overall outcomes without this product were better than with it. While there were outcomes that could be attributed to the product, they were simple substitution or cannibalization of outcomes that would have come through other means. Many of us believed in the idea, but the product wasn’t working well enough, and we had no specific ideas or credible plans to make it substantially better. So we halted it, not because we didn’t believe in it, but because there was too big a gap between what we knew how to do and what we needed to do.

My son eats like a raccoon. Doesn’t use silverware, uses both hands, makes a mess. At every meal I would chastise him and remind him to eat one-handed or to use utensils. If I wasn’t watching, or a couple of minutes passed, he went right back to the way he was. Every meal for years. I think manners matter. I think his manners are poor. But what I was doing wasn’t working, and I didn’t have any better ideas.

Giving up now doesn’t mean giving up forever. Giving up on a tactic doesn’t mean giving up on a goal. It just means you recognize there’s no profit in banging your head against a brick wall. Use your energy on one of the hundreds of things you can make progress on. Don’t blow it on something that won’t budge.