Scarcity Theory

Published by

Clarissa

September 15, 2016

Two nights ago, Klara just wouldn’t fall asleep. The most rational thing to do was to take her downstairs and rock her to sleep in her pram. But I was so exhausted that I couldn’t face having to go downstairs. So I tried to get her to sleep upstairs.

After 3,5 hours of fruitless efforts, I finally gave up, took her downstairs, and rocked her to sleep in the pram in 2 minutes.

I had wasted all this time and energy precisely because I had so little of them. Scarcity Theory definitely works. Thank you, reader SB, for telling me about it.

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10 responses to “Scarcity Theory”

michelinewalker

September 15, 2016

Caring for little children takes so much energy. I wish you well. 🙂

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cliff arroyo

September 15, 2016

My version of this is roughly as follows.

step one: I don’t wnat to write this from scratch (which would take between 10 and 15 minutes) I’ll just reuse the one I already did.

step two: Two hour search through computer for the one I did already, getting steadily more frustrated and determined to not. give. up. and. find. the. damned. thing.

step three: Give up, write it again in about 10 minutes.

step four: Find the version I had been looking for (realizing some really stupid thought process on my part had kept me form finding it).

step five: Realize the version I’d been looking for wasn’t as good as I’d thought and that the new version is better.

step six: Repeat the process step-by-step the next time I have to write something similar….

It’s my “process”….

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1. Clarissa
  
  September 15, 2016
  
  Sounds very familiar. 😀
  
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Stringer Bell

September 15, 2016

Ha, that scarcity theory definitely works for me. My most embarrassing data point:

I am usually conservative with money. Shopping at thrift stores instead of buying retail, cook rather than eat out, look for online coupons before purchasing stuff, buy fewer things but when I do, buy quality products that’ll last me a lifetime instead of cheap shit that’ll break down in a matter of months. You know, all the smart stuff.

There was just one period in my life when I didn’t adhere to this regimen: a lean period of funding issues in grad school. For a few months I was without a salary. You know what I did in response?

Started eating out, gained weight, became unhealthy. And…I took out a bank loan to buy a goddamn motorcycle.

This was me when I was flat out broke:

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1. Clarissa
  
  September 15, 2016
  
  N keeps exclaiming, “But why did you take out all those credit cards? Didn’t you know that they charge ruinous interest?” He really thinks that it’s about not knowing how debt works. 🙂 So, yeah. . .
  
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el

September 15, 2016

\Scarcity Theory definitely works. Thank you, reader SB, for telling me about it.

What is it?

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1. Clarissa
  
  September 15, 2016
  
  The theory is that if you experience scarcity of a certain resource, you will be especially wasteful with it. For instance, the busier you are, the more you are going to waste time. The poorer you are, the more you are going to waste money.
  
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  1. el
    
    September 15, 2016
    
    \ The theory is that if you experience scarcity of a certain resource, you will be especially wasteful with it.
    
    Why? What does it achieve?
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      September 15, 2016
      
      I only just discovered the theory a couple of days ago. I need some time to conduct clinical trials! 📚📒📖💡🔬
      
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    2. cliff arroyo
      
      September 16, 2016
      
      “Why? What does it achieve?”
      
      Thinking quickly, there’s a couple of things going on (different ones in different people at different times) but they all tend to work toward the same result (hard to call it a ‘goal’ or ‘achievement’)
      
      one – scarcity heightens one’s emotions vis a vis the scarce good and decisions tend to be less rational just because the emotions are too engaged and send to many conflicting messages to the brain
      
      two – people try to deceive themselves by wasting the scarce good in an effort to convince themselves that it’s not scarce after all
      
      three – people convince themselves there’s no need to try to conserve the scarce good because it’s about to run out, might as well enjoy it while it lasts (this is also the thinking behind the poor who tend to budget for luxuries first – you’re gonna be miserable so make sure you have what little enjoyment is possible
      
      four – people don’t want the burden of having to make tough judgement calls and so they rid themselves of the good altogether to escape from the necessity of choice
      
      I’m sure there are other things going on to. I recall reading about contemporary archeological research (going through people’s garbage) in a place that had experienced a meat shortage and found that meat was wasted more during the shortage than before or after. One explanation then was false economy – during the shortage people bought cheaper (and unfamiliar) types and cuts of meat and then threw out a lot of the leftovers because they didn’t like it (or they didn’t know how to prepare it).
      
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