The Reward-Worth-It Quit Test
Decide whether to stay by asking if the reward at the end is one you actually want
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 66%
The test has two inputs — will this be hard work, and is the reward worth it — and one bypass: if the work itself is enjoyable, it is worth doing regardless. Hard work plus a reward you want is a green light. Hard work plus a reward you do not want is the one combination that says leave. Océane applied it to her biophysics PhD: she had already proven to herself, through an Ironman and a two-year effort to land a backflip, that she could push through anything if she wanted the prize. Interrogating the PhD honestly, the only prize on offer was reputation and a title, and she did not want it. The cost of leaving was further reduced by her view that the door stayed open — she could re-enter science years later if she chose.
Origin
Ali Abdaal raised a quitting framework he attributes to Stephen Bartlett's book, and Natacha Océane recognised it as the logic behind leaving her biophysics PhD.
Core principles
- 01Hard is not a reason to quit; a reward you do not want is.
- 02Enjoyable work justifies itself even without a prize at the end.
- 03Prestige is a reward other people want on your behalf.
- 04Most doors are re-openable, which lowers the cost of leaving.
- 05Persistence should be spent where the payoff is real to you.
How to run it
- 1
Name the reward at the end
Write down the specific thing you get if you finish — the title, the salary, the credential, the finished artefact.
Pro tip If you struggle to name it in one line, that is itself a signal.
- 2
Test whether you want it
Ask, impartially, whether you want that reward or whether you want to be seen to have it. Océane's honest answer was reputation and the title alone.
Pro tip Imagine receiving the reward with nobody ever knowing about it. Does it still appeal?
Watch out Prestige answers are the easiest to mistake for desire.
- 3
Check the enjoyment bypass
If the work is enjoyable in itself, it passes regardless of the reward. Only when both the work and the reward fail does the test say leave.
Pro tip Compare against a period when you did enjoy similar work — she liked undergraduate biochemistry far more than optimising one experiment.
- 4
Price the exit and the re-entry
Work out what leaving actually costs and how hard it would be to come back later. Océane concluded she could simply re-enrol and repeat the process if she ever wanted to.
Pro tip Write the re-entry route down explicitly; it converts a feeling of finality into a plan.
Watch out Do not confuse other people's discomfort with an actual closed door.
- 5
Act and ignore the audience
Expect disapproval from institutions with reputations attached to your persistence, and proceed anyway.
Pro tip Decide once, then stop reopening the question weekly.
Watch out Delaying the decision while already disengaged is the most expensive option.
In the wild
Six months into her PhD, Océane watched the Banff Film Festival and asked herself for the first time whether she actually enjoyed what she was doing. Over another six months she concluded she was there for the reputation of the university and the title at the end, and that the day-to-day work — optimising a single mass spectrometry experiment for months — had displaced the biochemistry she loved. Professors were embarrassed and the university looked down on it; she left anyway.
→ She left the PhD and started a science-backed fitness YouTube channel that grew past two million followers across social media.
The backflip took Océane two years of repeated failure with no external reward attached. Because she genuinely wanted the outcome, the hard-work input never triggered a quit; she describes finally landing it unassisted as intensely emotional and as proof she could push through when the reward mattered.
→ Two years of difficulty passed the test where twelve months of a prestigious PhD did not.
Common mistakes
Treating difficulty as the signal
Hard work appears on both sides of the test; on its own it tells you nothing about whether to stay.
Accepting a borrowed reward
A doctorate, a job title or a follower count wanted mostly by family, institutions or peers will not sustain you through the hard part.
Assuming the door locks behind you
Overestimating the finality of leaving keeps people in place for years; most paths can be re-entered at a cost worth naming out loud.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone deep into a long credential, job or project who suspects they are continuing out of sunk cost or status.
Not ideal for
Short-term dips inside work you genuinely want, where the honest answer is simply that the middle is hard.
From the transcript
“And his model for this is, I think something like, you know, Will, Will this be hard work? And is the reward worth it?”
“And so I just apply that to other aspects of life if I want the reward at the end, which I didn't for my PhD.”
“I was purely doing it for the reputation for the doctor at the start of my name.”
From the episode
Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid To Quit - Natacha Océane
Natacha Océane