20240323 to 20240504, "Scarcity" by Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir

20240323 - Introduction 1

Scarcity reduces all these components of bandwidth - it makes us less insightful, less forward-thinking, less controlled. p13

This "bandwidth" actually means "attention". We only have limited attention. How to allocate it everyday?

If we pay too much attention to get coupon tickets, then we get less attention to create more value for society.

"Think hard, think ahead" is almost impossible when we are facing scarcity.

I think another trap is about "pleasure". We might pay too much attention to get more pleasure, when getting addicted to something such as drugs, computer games, sex, etc. From the other side, pleasure is becoming cheaper and easier to get, anywhere and anytime.

Part One: The Scarcity Mindset

20240323 - 1. Focusing and Tunneling 19

It is exceedingly difficult to fool ourselves into working harder by faking a deadline. p27

Can we turn it into a game, and make it more fun? Give it a fake score to satisfy ourselves?

Focusing is generally good, because we still can notice other things while efficiently handling the current work. Tunneling could be bad, as we may ignore long-term important goals.

Meditation needs focusing instead of tunneling. Reading is same. Can I practise this while reading?

20240324 - 2. The Bandwidth Tax 39

Top-down attention cannot prevent bottom-up intrusions. p44

Scarcity itself also captures attention via a bottom-up process. p44

This book should be named as "attention". Reduced attention is the bandwidth tax.

Meditation gives us the capability to put unnecessary worries down.

Part Two: Scarcity Creates Scarcity

20240407 - 3. Packing and Slack 69

Quality comes from scarcity? Very interesting.

Software quality is poor if computer is very fast. We are more likely to waste our time if we believe we have abundant time. Just like bees vs wasp.

Maybe, the extinction of Elf is caused by their too long lifespan. :-)

Scarcity can improve our productivity in short term, but it cannot help us in long term, thanks for the bandwidth tax. So we need to prepare slack for ourselves, we need to stay calm.

20240408 - 4. Expertise 87

The difference between rich people and poor people, is how they value their time.

Rich people's time worth more, so they also care more about enjoyment and productivity.

Poor people care less about time. If we cannot increase our income, then we have to cut our expense, even with the cost of more time consumed.

20240409 - 5. Borrowing and Myopia 105

Why think ahead is so hard?

1. Too busy in short-term important but long-term trivial issues;

2. Be busy in pursuing pleasure, or let our mind wandering around.

Borrowing with low interest rate to invest is good; or else is bad. The latter includes entertainment, paying bills, buying food, etc., unnless we know it's just temporary scarcity.

I think it's not about vision, but more about compound effect. When people are tunnelled because of scarcity, they have too much urgent things need to pay attention, so they cannot step back to think about compound effect.

Rent fee, interest payment, physical exercise and keeping office clean look like linear factors, but they are not. They bring compound effect to us in the future.

20240419 - 6. The Scarcity Trap 123

Scarcity is one of the reasons for the challengings we are facing. How to solve it?

Think ahead, think hard. How to do that? Attention.

How can we control our attention? Meditation is useful.

We need good habits to get around the problem, and we need to figure out a way to get good habits.

20240420 - 7. Poverty 147

Stress itself doesn't help. Can we leave it aside? Or at least, can we notice it?

What can we do when we are under stress? Write it done? Do some physical exercise? Drinking, icecream and computer game are surely not good idea.

Does computer game tax attention bandwidth? It does, but is different from the one caused by scarcity.

Part Three: Designing for Scarcity

20240421 - 8. Improving the Lives of the Poor 167

Bandwidth is surely one of the important factors of poverty.

It's hard to imagine that $10 lone helps that much, but it makes sense. The lesson from it is to plan ahead.

How can we increase our bandwidth, or reduce bandwidth waste?

20240503 - 9. Managing Scarcity in Organizations 183

SLACK VERSUS FAT p188

The authors missed the point here, I think.

Slack here is more about "spare time", and Fat means "attitude"

The reasons that reduce the head count is to improve work attitude as a whole.

But each employee needs some spare time to handle unexpected events and tasks.

MARS ORBITER p189

The authors missed the point again.

The whole NASA team should only use the metric system emasurement to avoid all unit conversion.

Here, optimization or double check are wrong.

However, if the project team had enough slack to double check everything, the project may succeed, with unnecessary high cost.

THE FIREFIGHTING TRAP p192

Hiring chief risk officers is not the best solution. It will not intimidate manager's desire for bonus.

What is scarce? How to solve the problem?

Steve Jobs is right: get rid of all minor products and services, focus on the major one.

It is said, 80% of the profit come from 20% of products or services.

For example, for internal developed computer system, we should focus more on funtionalities instead of splendid UI.

20240504 - 10. Scarcity in Everyday Life 205

Slack is important, but simple lifestyle (maybe low desire) is more important.

Plan ahead, and then figure out the details of the plan.

Think ahead, think hard.

Abundance means no stress. No stress, then low productivity.

What should I do if got FIRE or just be retired?

20240504 - Conclusion 227

Should we treat normal people as babies to give me automatic reminders through computer? GlowCaps is surely not the best solution.

What should we do at social level?

Abundance and scarciety come in turn. How can we keep the sense of urgency in abundance? How can we be more productive to experience more while we are under 80?