A fun read. I do think it's possible to learn this lesson too well, though. Sometimes it really is better to just cut your losses, and the only thing stopping you is pride.
What's important isn't that you tilt at windmills or beat a dead horse. Notice that nowhere in the story does either her or her daughter suggest the other do the work to fix it.
The importance is in recognizing what you truly want. Sometimes people don't have the self reflection, perception, or foresight to realize the joy they might get out of some damn hard work.
Also this comment has an interesting vibe in the classical "pride is bad" sense. I think it can be bad in the sense that it usually describes like a narcissist kind of pride when it's used negatively. But this is clearly a justified pride in oneself-- pride in not only overcoming adversity, but enjoying it immensely.
And yeah, I think it's bad to let pride get in the way of doing what makes sense. Just crazy like that I guess!
She mentioned a couple of times that she went into the tangle because she wanted to, that she hadn't had to "bail a loom out of a major temper tantrum" in a while.
To be sure, recovering the 1 1/2 yard Shetland warp and other materials would in no way compensate 10 hours of labor - but that presumes there's nothing to learn from the process.
I want to say something surly about how accountants have driven software development to losing its soul in pursuit of dollars but ... that's not going to end constructively. =D So instead I'll just say I really admire the attitude of, "I can fix that. It will take more time than it's worth but screw the economics of it all, I'm going to do it anyway. Fsck you, entropy."
Of course, if there's a rule for how to avoid both of those errors, I haven't found it. But it's helpful at least to know that they both exist.