Scarcity
by Sendhil Mullainathan · first published 2013
14mentions
10recommended by
11HN commenters
2013–2023first – last mentioned
91% recommend9% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Behavioral economics account of how scarcity of money, time, or food hijacks attention and bandwidth, backed by experiments; recommended for anyone curious about the psychology behind poverty and busy schedules.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
An examination of how scarcity--and our flawed responses to it--shapes our lives, our society, and our culture.
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Technically true, there is an interesting book you might want to read titled, "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much" (http://www.amazon.com/Scarcity-Having-Little-Means-Much/dp/0...). Its central theme is that scarcity changes the value calculus of our decision making process, and…
on “How St. Louis County, Missouri Profits from Poverty” ↗I've been reading this: http://www.amazon.com/Scarcity-Having-Little-Means-Much/dp/0... Which has some excellent insights into this sort of behavior. Basically if you don't have enough money you are willing to borrow against a future payout for an extortionate…
on “A cluster of start-ups in east London is thriving” ↗Book recommendation: Scarcity by Mullainathan and Shafir which discusses "scarcity traps" at length, esp. in the case of poverty, but also in other contexts (such as time scarcity for busy people, food scarcity for dieters, socialization…
on “What Poverty Does to the Young Brain” ↗"Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much" - by Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir. Access to scarce resources induces a particular scarcity mindset, which the authors -- both behavioural economists at Harvard…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗…can't afford to spend time and resources on the long term if they need to worry about meeting basic needs on a daily basis. If you're interested in learning more about this, I would recommend to read Scarcity, a wonderful book that explores this in more detail: http://www.amazon.com/Scarcity-Science-Having-Defines-Lives/...
on “Homeless alone” ↗…effect is strong enough to bring a person with "superior" IQ down to "average", or an "average" IQ down to "borderline deficient". If you're interested in the subject, I'd highly recommend the book _Scarcity_ by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. If you'd like a shorter and more concise version, there's also an article titled "The Science of Scarcity" [0] in Harvard Magazine about the book that summarizes…
on “You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal” ↗To anyone interested in how poverty (and scarcity in general) affects our mental state, and thus our ability to function well and improve our lives, I'd highly recommend the book _Scarcity_ by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. I've found it quite…
on “You Don't Batch Cook When You're Suicidal” ↗…If Beale Street Could Talk NONFICTION 1. Melba Patillo Beals - Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High 2. Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir - Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much 3. Laura Fermi - Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi 4. Judith Newton - From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement 5. Sikivu Hutchinson…
on “The Best Books I Read in 2014” ↗Shafir and Mullainathan wrote a book called "Scarcity" that articulates an expanded version of this idea. Highly recommended.
on “How poverty changes your mindset” ↗An excellent read about this topic: Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives (Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir) The authors, through empirical research (awesome experiments) show that scarcity (poverty) makes people…
on “Using the hunger I experienced as a kid to teach mine about generosity (2019)” ↗I agree with you that is the choice they would make, but stand by my point that it hurts them rather than helps. I think you would find the book "Scarcity: Why having to little means so much" by Sendhil Mullainathan an interesting read. What I got out of that book was that this behavior is built in at a much deeper level of our brains than you might expect…
on “They Used To Last 50 Years” ↗…first search looks like a very big problem at the end of the day. People pay cognitive tax that robs them from doing intellectually difficult tasks. This is well documented in behavioral economics. "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir"
on ““I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”” ↗I recommend the book Scarcity for anyone interested in learning more about the psychology behind this. It was written Mullainathan and Shafir, both stars in their respective fields.
on “Poor in Tech” ↗>BYLINE: Each September the state of Massachusetts asks one thing from "Scarcity" author and Harvard economist, Sendhil Mullainathan, to renew his car inspection sticker and each year this recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award does the same thing. He's really busy, so on each day…
on “How Scarcity Trap Affects Our Thinking, Behavior” ↗