Book Report – Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir

My favorite authors, Chip and Dan Heath, recently made Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir one of their book recommendations, so I jumped at the chance to read and review it. The similarities between these pairs of authors are fairly obvious – the highly readable style, the humor, and the repeated yet always fresh reinforcement of core ideas are all there in plain sight. The difference is the subject matter. Whereas the Brothers Heath have published so successfully about making our ideas more memorable, our changes more permanent, and our decisions more effective, this book tackles the much heavier topic of having less, whether that’s time, money, or resources. It doesn’t make Mullainthan’s and Shafir’s work any less important; on the contrary, one could argue that they address the far more crucial topic in this land of the ever-widening income gap. Here’s the thing: where the Heaths’ books are great for literally everyone to read, Scarcity can only be recommended for those who struggle with making ends meet and those who are open-minded to the very realness of the problem. (Nah, we probably shouldn’t build a wall to keep out those who lack abundance.)

Scarcity herein is defined as having less than we feel we need and “it imposes itself on our minds.” When we fail to think abundantly, we invariably go into slashing mode, even when it makes not one shred of sense. Times get tough and recession sets in and… we stop marketing and reduce the sales effort? When others retreat, isn’t it incumbent upon us to attack? The challenge is something called tunneling, meaning we “focus single-mindedly on managing the scarcity at hand.” It may make good logical sense to redouble efforts when our competitors think the sky is falling, but it’s hard to remain clear-headed when all the news around says trouble abounds. Business people burrow deeper into the tunnel with a laser focus on trimming fat even though the better move is to rise above the morass and think strategically and abundantly. There is a limit to how many expenses we can cut, but in most industries there is an untold treasure of opportunity around most every corner, so much so that we couldn’t get to it all if we lived to be 1,000. Hyperbolic as that may be, it’s a healthy mindset to have and nurture.

Mullainthan and Shafir also break periodically from the textbook material to include some helpful tips and fun facts. Always pressed for time? Have your assistant (or a designee) pop into your meeting with a time warning and return five minutes later with a nonnegotiable “let’s go” order. Wondering why detergent caps got bigger over time? Because apparently it’s more satisfying to go past the fill line, meaning we’re unnecessarily using more product while Snuggles Bear laughs demonically at our idiotic ways. Curious where and when the (reduced) 40-hour workweek started? Glad you asked! It was at Ford Motor Company in 1926 because ol’ Henry had a hunch that the less-equals-more concept applied to his overworked assembly lines. Ever heard of cyberloafing? (Me neither.) It’s the mindless web surfing people do in the evening when they’re overtired due to working too much and sleeping too little. Scarcity is the perfect book to start the New Year and to commit to accomplishing more with less. And if you don’t have the bandwidth to read it, just commit to stop filling the damned Snuggles cap so high.