Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

In the Introduction, Mullainathan and Shafir draw from personal experiences and an array of anecdotes to illustrate the central theme of their book: Scarcity captures the mind, creating a singular focus that leads to narrow benefits in addressing immediate concerns, while also causing oversight and detrimental consequences in all other parts of life.

Mullainathan shares his own struggles with time scarcity, detailing how he became trapped within a vicious cycle of missed deadlines and postponed obligations. At the time, he told Shafir that he had a plan to get out: Mullainathan would simply avoid any new obligations and work meticulously to finish old ones. However, a week later, Mullainathan called Shafir to excitedly announce—without “even a trace of irony” (2) in his voice—a potential new obligation: Two of their colleagues were putting together a book on low-income Americans, and Mullainathan and Shafir had the opportunity to contribute a chapter. The two men took the opportunity, and they say that the observations and connections they made in writing the chapter for that book led to their work on Scarcity.

Mullainathan and Shafir share an excerpt from the notes they compiled while writing the chapter for their colleagues’ book.