{
  "id": "old-habits-die-hard.path",
  "term": "old habits die hard",
  "sense": "path",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 17,
  "domain": "human behavior",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A self-model that persists through time even when the environment changes, because the cost of updating it exceeds the immediate benefit of change.",
  "folk_gloss": "It's difficult to stop doing something the way you've always done it.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "persistence.endurance",
      "cost.economic",
      "benefit-of-the-doubt.trust",
      "environment.surroundings",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "self-model persists despite environmental change due to cost-benefit imbalance in updating",
    "novel_properties": [
      "path.dependence"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "old habits die hard"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — path dependence"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-old-habits-die-hard.path"
}