Scarcity

Why Having Too Little Means So Much

By: Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

In the blockbuster tradition of Freakonomics, a Harvard economist and a Princeton psychology professor team up to offer a surprising and empowering new way to look at everyday life, presenting a paradigm-challenging examination of how scarcity—and our flawed responses to it—shapes our lives, our society, and our culture.

Why do successful people get things done at the last minute? Why does poverty persist? Why do organizations get stuck firefighting? Why do the lonely find it hard to make friends? These questions seem unconnected, yet Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir show that they are all are examples of a mindset produced by scarcity.

Drawing on cutting-edge research from behavioral science and economics, Mullainathan and Shafir show that scarcity creates a similar psychology for everyone struggling to manage with less than they need. Busy people fail to manage their time efficiently for the same reasons the poor and those maxed out on credit cards fail to manage their money. The dynamics of scarcity reveal why dieters find it hard to resist temptation, why students and busy executives mismanage their time, and why sugarcane farmers are smarter after harvest than before. Once we start thinking in terms of scarcity and the strategies it imposes, the problems of modern life come into sharper focus.

Another tool for your mental toolbox!

Excellent framework that can be used for all- around problem solving. Good reading on subject

A great listen.

Fascinating subject. Really interesting and easy to follow. I wish I didn’t listen to so much in my car because I wanted to take so many notes.

Well-written and extremely interesting

I enjoyed this entire book. The authors do a great job explaining economic concepts for a lay audience. While there are some political implications to their theories and they do suggest som policy approaches, they do a good job of not getting lost in the tall weeds of politics outside of a social science tool. As for content, I wondered at times if there is a component of applying new terminology to some standard economic principles. But, they present historical and new data from empirical studies that are very impressive to me as not being classically trained in the science of economics (aka, the study of scarcity).

too repetitive

the contents could've been delivered in half the chapters. the subject is important and interesting, but the book has too much repeated content. we get it! scarcity reduces mental bandwidth to a high degree, do we need a million chapters to repeat that?

Had to stop running to take notes!

I often listen to business books while I run. I started this one with a sense of duty. But it was so fascinating, specific, and relevant, that I kept having to stop and take important notes. This book wrecked my run pace. Highly recommended.