# Thinking Opportunity Cost

Before committing scarce time, people, or money, name the best forgone use of those...

- Repository: https://github.com/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills (1690 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-08-07
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-opportunity-cost -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-opportunity-cost -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-opportunity-cost -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills --skill thinking-opportunity-cost -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills`

## Description

Before committing scarce time, people, or money, name the best forgone use of those resources and the value delta of the chosen path versus that alternative.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Opportunity Cost

Core rule: every commitment displaces its best alternative. Report both that forgone value and the net value delta; decide on the delta, not the chosen path alone.

## When to Use

- Allocating scarce time, headcount, budget, or attention across competing options
- Feature prioritization, build-vs-buy, tech-debt vs product work
- Saying yes to a large commitment that displaces other work
- Comparing a bold path against polishing the status quo when windows may close

## When NOT to Use

- Trivial or cheaply reversible choices where analysis costs more than the resource
- No real alternative use (resource is idle, earmarked, or non-fungible)
- Mandatory work (compliance, security fix, hard dependency) with no optional alternative
- Inventing speculative alternatives only to look rigorous when the next-best is clearly worse

## Procedure

The rest: https://github.com/tjboudreaux/cc-thinking-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/thinking-opportunity-cost/SKILL.md