Sure, that makes sense. The point is that if the only cost is the cost of the attempt itself, then it depends on that detail. The cost of me posting this is some time and energy. By bothering to post, I continue practicing communication skills and open myself to learning new perspectives from others. If all that succeeds, maybe it's worth it (although maybe I have more valuable things I should be doing).

If I fail to have a productive exchange, then the cost of time and energy is indeed non-zero. But I will have a good chance of learning something about where I went wrong (because I have a habit of reflecting on things and learning what I can from each little exchange), so it's not a total loss.

But I'll accept I was wrong to imply that there's absolutely no cost to some failures, that was too strong a wording. I'd count that as a minor failure in my efforts to communicate with nuance. I'll keep working to improve. Cheers