Scarcity Why Having Too Little Means So Much Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir

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ScarcityWhy Having Too Little Means So MuchSendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir

Scarcity is a universal human experience: the feeling that we don’t have enough of what we need. In Scarcity, behavioral science researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explain how scarcities of time and money temporarily change our brains: They make us more efficient with a limited resource in the short term, but they also decrease our mental bandwidth, distorting the way we process information and make decisions. This not only exacerbates scarcity, but it also takes a huge toll on other areas of our lives, like health, relationships, and work.

In this guide, we’ll explore both the good and bad sides of scarcity: how it enables us to work at a superhuman pace as a deadline approaches and how our decreased mental bandwidth digs us deeper into scarcity. We’ll discuss strategies to counteract the negative cognitive effects of scarcity, why poverty is a unique scarcity, and how we can design better social programs to alleviate poverty. We’ll also include recommendations from other authors about managing limited time and money.

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