Try as we might, humans don’t make every decision based on purely rational processes. Fred Wilson touched on this for the world of VCs ( Been There Done That ):
even though I understand that rationally, it doesn’t help with the emotional aversion to trying something again that didn’t work last time. And venture capital investing is not a detached cold hyper-rational exercise. It is a deeply emotional and connected experience. And thus the reluctance to go there again.
Of course this applies to so many things outside of venture capital. The trick is to recognize it and be ok with saying so. There is often a strong temptation to cover this up and come up with some other reason.