I'm so excited to share my thoughts on this fascinating book with you today! It's called "Scarcity Brain," which translates to "Scarce Brain." I'm happy to say that it was published in the United States in September 2023. The subtitle of this book is "Fix your desire mentality, reshape your habits, and embrace a life of sufficiency."

The book zeroes in on a really common situation we all face in our daily lives. Even though you might not realize it, this is something we all face in our lives. We've all been there! Even though you've already eaten enough, you just can't help but keep eating snacks. Even though you already have clothes in your closet that don't fit, you keep buying them on sale. Even though it's the middle of the night and you have to get up early for work tomorrow, you just can't stop watching short videos. It's so hard when we feel remorse for our actions, especially when we don't know what to do with ourselves.

We all know that feeling. You've had a few too many, but you just can't stop. This is a tricky one! We know there's no external force making us do it, and we know we can stop if we want to. But we just can't control ourselves, right? This state is what we call addiction. Today's book is all about the ins and outs of addictive behaviors and some helpful tips for dealing with them. I'd like to introduce you to the author of this book, Michael Easter. Michael is a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his main research topic is how to improve the quality of life.

Have you ever wondered why we become addicted? And the answer is right there in the title of this book! We all have a scarcity brain. In other words, our brain is constantly sending out scarcity signals, convincing us that we don't have enough. It's like our brain is wired this way! It's so sad! We are trapped by this sense of deprivation, even though we already have so much. We can't stop chasing after it, even though we already have more than enough.

So, you might be wondering, why do we have a scarcity brain? And you might be wondering, how do we get rid of it? And now, let's dive into the book together! Let's dive into this together! We'll explore this topic in two parts. In the first part, we'll figure out why we have a scarcity brain and what makes it tick. In the second part, we'll explore how we can say goodbye to our scarcity brain and even go beyond it!

The first part:

It's totally understandable that in today's world, where we have so much material wealth and information at our fingertips, our brains shouldn't keep sending signals like "I'm scarce, I'm not enough," right? However, the authors say that feeling scarcity is actually a primitive instinct that we humans have been carrying around with us since the days of our evolution.

Just stop for a moment and think about how our ancestors lived. They lived in a world where resources were so scarce that they had to travel long distances to find food. In fact, they reportedly ran at least 30 miles a day! On top of that, their food source was really unpredictable. They had no way of knowing which fruit tree had fruit or when a wild animal would come out to say hello. Even if they find food, they have no way of knowing if there will be any tomorrow. In this kind of environment, who can make it through? Of course, it's the person who always feels like what they have isn't enough and pushes themselves to keep going, to keep running and searching. This type of person is also more likely to leave their genes behind. As time went on, this feeling of scarcity became deeply ingrained in our genes.

Even later, during the Industrial Revolution, we quickly figured out how to make food more efficiently and our environment went from scarcity to abundance. Despite this, our primal genes still prompted us to think and act in certain ways. We all do it! We eat more food than our bodies need, seek out more information, buy unnecessary things, and focus on getting what we don't have instead of enjoying what we already have. The authors say that in the modern world, we don't often think of ourselves as lucky, even when we have more than enough. It's something you might not even realize you're doing, but it's so deeply ingrained in our minds that it makes us more likely to feel like we don't have enough, and more likely to become hooked on certain things.

And when our obsession with scarcity reaches a certain level, something pretty interesting happens. It causes a state that makes us more likely to become addicted to certain things. This state is called mind narrowing. That means our thinking is focused on one thing, and it's all about what you think is scarce. It's as if nothing else in the world exists! And so, we care about it so much and are so obsessed with it! I'd like you to think back to a time in your life when you were really hooked on someone, something, or an object. At that time, did you ever forget about the state of the entire forest for the sake of this one leaf?

All right, let's dive a little deeper into this together. What happens in our amazing brains when we feel scarcity? Guess what? At that moment, our brain actually secretes a substance that you may not be familiar with called dopamine. You might have heard that dopamine is the substance in charge of pleasure and that its secretion makes us feel happy.

But here's something interesting. The authors say that dopamine has another role, too. It motivates us to pursue pleasure! Let's say you come home after a long day at work and have a glass of wine. You feel so relaxed! This is when your brain makes a connection between drinking and feeling good. So, the next time we feel stressed, our lovely brain releases dopamine to create a craving for a glass of wine. Have you ever noticed how when we watch a short video and find it interesting, our dopamine kicks in and makes us want to keep watching? It's a natural way to feel happy and engaged, and it's easy to get hooked!

Dopamine is a fascinating substance! It's not just responsible for feelings of pleasure, but also for our addictive response. I once heard someone say that it might be possible to control the addictive response by controlling dopamine production. What do you think? I'm really sorry, but the answer is no. Dopamine is a pretty amazing little chemical. It has so many different roles in our body, from regulating our movement to affecting our urinary system to controlling the production of our white blood cells. But here's the thing: if we try to regulate dopamine too much, our body will start to have trouble functioning properly. That's not a good thing!

If we want to beat addictive behavior, it's a great idea to start by understanding how it works. Once we know how it operates, we can spot the patterns that drive it and then break it down. Next, let's dive into the nitty-gritty of addictive behavior.

Let's start with a gambling machine that has unfortunately become quite popular in the United States. It's a great example of how addiction works. This machine is a slot machine, which is a really fun way to gamble! Have you ever wondered how a slot machine works? It's actually pretty simple! All you have to do is press a button, turn the wheel, and watch a specific graphic appear on the screen. And just like that, you've won money! Have you ever been to Las Vegas? It's the gambling capital of the United States! Slot machines are everywhere there. You'll find them in every corner of the city, from gas stations to restaurants to airport terminals.

It's hard to believe, but before the 1970s, slot machines were pretty unpopular. People liked to play card games and dice games better. They thought slot machines were a bit boring. Slot machines had quite the comeback! They took Las Vegas by storm, and it all started with a man named Redd who made a series of improvements to slot machines.

He also added some lovely sound and light effects to slot machines. And when you win, it makes the most exciting, loud noises and glows! But the best part is that he changed the way the machine works when you win. The old mechanism was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. Most of the time, folks would win nothing during the game. Then, in a few moments, they'd get a bigger reward. Let's say we have $10 in our hand and bet $1 per game. With the old machine, it would be really tough to win. You might not win at all, or if you did, it would be just a little bit here and there. I'm sure you'd be disappointed if you lost all your $10 in two minutes and didn't get to play again.

But Redd's machine is different! It adds more wins, reduces the amount of a single win, and designs each win to be more varied in size. Let me give you an example. If you played once or twice, you won 10 cents. Then the next time you didn't win, and the next time you won 50 cents! The win amounts may not be as high as the old machine, but the players are having a blast! They're playing for an average of 15 minutes and are amazed at a machine that gets them so excited they want to keep playing.

You'll notice that the most essential difference between the old model and the new one is whether the incentive offered is an infrequent big reward or a random and intensive small reward. It's only natural that we're more likely to keep going if we feel like we've got a chance of winning.

The author has put together a great summary of how and why we get hooked on slot machines. He looked at how they work and other research results and came up with a theory he calls the scarcity cycle. It's really quite simple, it just has three steps. I'd like to draw your attention to this mechanism, which is the heart of the book.

The first step in the scarcity cycle is called "opportunity," says the author. That means it has to be something that has the potential to change your life for the better! Things like money, food, information, status, and so on could fit the bill. We play slot machines because we love the chance to win! The opportunity gives us a reason to jump right into the cycle!

The second step in the scarcity cycle is called an unpredictable reward. This reward has two main features. The first thing to know is that it's unpredictable. And the second thing is that it happens more intensely. Take a moment to think about it. In our everyday lives, the rewards we get are often pretty predictable. We get an itch, we scratch it, and it stops itching. It's as simple as that! When we feel hungry, we go and eat a meal, and before we know it, we're not hungry anymore! On a certain day of the month, we get paid! We tend to take these fixed, predictable rewards for granted and don't find them addictive.

But the authors say something really interesting. They say that when rewards are unpredictable, we experience an exciting sense of suspense and anxiety. That feeling is addictive, my friend. In the slot machine we just mentioned, in the old model, you could pretty much predict that you had a high probability of winning nothing. And, sadly, you only won a small percentage of the time. But in the new model, you never know if you're going to lose or win this time, and you never know how big the reward will be! So it's clear that the new model is much more unpredictable.

The third step in the scarcity loop is called rapid repetition. This means that you can do the behavior again and again without much effort and quickly! Product designers will design silky-smooth lanes for rapid repetition, just as you can start the next round of a slot machine right after the reward is revealed. As we go through this effortless, rapid repetition, our rationality is kind of paralyzed, and the rewards come faster and faster. So, we end up spinning like a little gyroscope!

I really think you'll find this scarcity loop model really helpful for understanding our everyday behavior. Let's take the addictive behavior of swiping short videos as an example. In the first step, we get to relax a bit. In the second step, we enjoy the fun and sometimes surprising rewards of swiping to videos that either make us laugh or bore us. And in the third step, we get to move our fingers quickly to move on to the next content. Oh my, that's a lot of repetition! Before we know it, we're knee-deep in short videos that we just can't seem to get out of!

Another example is snacking. Snacks are getting better and better at tempting us! They're designed to be easy to eat, in small shapes, and in one bite. This makes it easy for us to snack quickly and often. Have you ever noticed how quickly the anchor points over the products in a live room move? It's a mixture of good and bad products, and it's designed to keep you on your toes! With the uncertainty of the reward and rapid repetition, it's easy to see how this could lead to addiction.

Okay, so we just mentioned the three steps of the scarcity cycle and how it shows up in our everyday lives. There's another factor that plays a big part in addiction, and we can think of it as a moderating variable in this model.

That's where the concentration of the thing comes in. It's so interesting how the higher the concentration, the more addictive we become! For example, the more delicious and nutritious something is, the more concentrated it is, the more it can lure us into a craving for it. We can't help but be drawn in by short videos that are really intense and keep us on the edge of our seats. It's so easy to get hooked on things like that! In modern industrial society, lots of things are becoming more and more concentrated. The food we ate before wasn't as tasty as it is now, and it wasn't as nutritious, and the entertainment we used to watch wasn't as engaging. We weren't as easily addicted back then. But now, we're up against so many highly concentrated substances that we're more likely to get caught up in them.

Once you've got to grips with the whole scarcity cycle, you'll have that extra bit of knowledge to help you recognise when you're in a similar situation. It's the scarcity cycle! You'll know to be on your toes.

Part 2:

It's not enough to just be aware, though. We have to work through and even go beyond the addictive behavior. Let's dive into the second part, shall we? How do we get out of the scarcity cycle?

When we realize that we're over-consuming and over-intaking, our first thought might be, "Can I restrain myself? Can I deliberately reduce my consumption? Should I eat less food? Or even follow a very popular trend called minimalism?" The author kindly points out that this approach might not be the most effective. You know, minimalism can actually be another kind of compulsion.

He finds that minimalism, like overaccumulation, is driven by anxiety, which is totally understandable! Over-accumulators are driven by a scarcity mentality. They feel the need to have lots of stuff to make themselves feel better. And you know what? Minimalists are driven by a strong anxiety about chaos and an inability to accept that things are out of their control. So, the author's view is that minimalism isn't the best state of being. On top of that, if you try to get out of the cycle by forcing yourself to stop, you might find that you temporarily stop wanting what you want, but then you'll probably just want it even more the next time you see it!

So, if I could make one suggestion, it would be to start with the mechanism of the scarcity cycle. We've just taken a look at the three steps of the scarcity cycle. Now, we're going to focus on these three steps, one by one, to help you break the cycle.

I'd like to start with a story. It's so sad to see that drug and alcohol addiction has been a big social problem in the United States. A report followed patients with drug abuse and alcohol addiction problems for a while and found that by the time they were 30 years old, half of them had kicked their addictions without even trying!

Oh my, what do you think happened? The researchers found that by the time these folks reached 30, they had experienced so many major life changes—like getting married, having kids, and even starting their own businesses! - that they didn't have time for hangovers and their attention was shifted away from those little pleasures. In other words, a series of life changes made it so that the first step in the creation of the scarcity cycle—access to temptation—was no longer an issue. This is a great reminder that the first step in getting rid of an addiction is to cut off access to temptation. For example, if you're addicted to swiping short videos, try leaving your cell phone in the living room before you go to bed. Or, you know what? Just change the environment! For example, you could try living in a different place, developing a new hobby to distract yourself, or even just making a few new friends!

The second way to get out of the scarcity cycle is to turn those unpredictable rewards into fixed rewards. You know, it's funny how that works. No matter how good something is, as soon as it becomes fixed, it kind of loses its appeal. The authors made an interesting discovery. They found that when painkillers were prescribed in a regular hospital, at a fixed dosage, for a fixed period of time, the rate of addiction among patients was greatly reduced. This is really interesting because it shows us that if we set a time window for behavior, so that rewards can be generated in predictable, fixed scenarios, then it's not as attractive. For example, if you love to swipe short videos, why not try setting a time limit for yourself? You could swipe for half an hour at lunchtime and half an hour at dinner to release the desire. This is a great way to avoid coming home at night and being led by that addictive mechanism when willpower is already low.

The third way to break out of the scarcity cycle is to slow down the repetition. This can be a really helpful way to avoid getting stuck in a loop! When we watch a deep movie or read a long novel, we're less likely to lose control because it's a much slower, deeper plot buildup, with not as many intense high points. This is great for our brains! And when you're done watching it, you're in a deep state of reminiscence, right? When we put in the effort to assemble our new furniture, we don't feel the urge to shop as much. Instead, we get to enjoy spending time appreciating the beautiful things we've made ourselves! These are all great ways to beat addictions by making repetitive tasks a little bit slower.

So, to sum up, there are three ways to get out of the scarcity cycle. And guess what? They each correspond to the three steps of the scarcity cycle! The first thing you can do is to make it harder for yourself to give in to temptation. The second thing is to turn random rewards into fixed rewards. And the third thing is to slow down the rate of repetition. But the authors' solution is even better!

We all want to get rid of our problems, but we also want to live a more active and healthy life. So the authors thought, since we get hooked on the quick and shallow because of this cycle, could we use this mechanism to help us build more positive habits? So the authors had another great idea! They came up with a new cycle based on the scarcity cycle, which they called the abundance cycle.

This cycle is all about filling our hearts with deep, abiding joy. The steps of the cycle are the same as the Scarcity Cycle, but it opens up in a very different way.

I'd love to chat with you about the abundance cycle next.

And the first step is still opportunity! But instead of getting in touch with temptation, why not get in touch with the real world?

When we step out and get in touch with nature, when we are in the real world and go and interact with people, we increase our chances of having a really wonderful experience in that real world.

There are some fascinating studies that experiment with pigeons. The researchers took a group of pigeons that were caged and addicted to the food they were feeding them and released them into the wild. The pigeons were then recaptured and taken back to their cages. Amazingly, they stopped reacting to the food in the same addictive way! The researchers came up with a really interesting theory called the "optimal stimulus model." This model suggests that both humans and animals need a certain level of stimulation to thrive. If there's not enough stimulation, they'll actively seek it out and become addicted. When our minds are happy and fulfilled, we don't feel the need to seek out other sources of stimulation. Pigeons get all the stimulation they need in the wild, and when they come back to their cage, they're not as interested in food as they once were.

It's so lovely to see how, when we connect with the real world and get enough stimulation there, we naturally become immune to those virtual and shallow pleasures. Take a moment to think back to your own experience. When you open your legs, go out, and connect with nature and people, don't you feel a deep sense of joy? I'd love to know if you feel less enthusiastic about short videos, shopping, etc. Sometimes, we even forget about them!

The author says that we can still enjoy buying things, but we can change the way we think about it. He suggests a new way of looking at it with a slogan called "equipment, not objects." We all love to collect things, but wouldn't it be great if we could collect things that help us be more productive and achieve more? We can let our desire to buy equipment take over, and it can bring more positive meaning to our lives!

This is how the Enrichment Cycle sees opportunity. It looks at opportunity not as temptation, but as a wonderful chance to engage with the real world and to increase future productivity.

And now for the second step: the wonderful, unpredictable rewards! The Enrichment Cycle helps us with this in a really positive way. It shows us how we can build up a reward system that encourages us to do good things, rather than being held back by a system that someone else has created. For instance, if we're off to discover a new place, we can give ourselves a little space to explore without feeling the need to check out a review tool or get a full rundown of everything. This space is all about embracing the unexpected. It's a chance to encounter new things, and to find beauty in the unknown. It's all about embracing the unexpected in our everyday lives!

We can also build this reward mechanism into our work and home scenarios, and it's a great idea! For instance, we can encourage our teams with delightful surprises from time to time, rather than always fixed rewards. For example, studies have found that giving children fixed rewards isn't as effective as giving them the kind of rewards that keep them on their toes! The best way to motivate little ones is to give them fixed rewards for a little while, and then turn the fixed rewards into variable rewards.

And now, let's take a look at the third step: quick repetition. We all know that doing things in real life can be more laborious and slower to reach results than in digital space. It's often not easy to get into a cycle of quick repetition, and that's okay! We can break big tasks down into smaller ones, break complete big rewards into many smaller rewards, and actively allow ourselves to experience the joy of winning quickly in real life. It's so important to enjoy the little things in life!

The authors say that once we learn to build rich cycles and experience deeper pleasures, those shallow pleasures won't be as appealing to us anymore.

That's all for now! We've covered the addictive mechanism in a nutshell. We've focused on sharing two loops with you today. There are two main cycles to look at: the scarcity cycle and the abundance cycle. But that's not all! There's still more to come in this book. As we wrap up this listening book, let's take a moment to revisit the root of the addictive mechanism, which is scarcity. Let's dive a little deeper into the concept of scarcity together.

In the argument we've just made, we've come to see that feeling scarce is not a good thing. It can make us feel like we're missing out, and it can lead us to go after things we don't really need. The author of this book is actually pretty open-minded about scarcity. And at the end of the book, he suggests that scarcity, too, has some pretty amazing positive effects that we can all benefit from!

Scarcity of resources, for example, can actually be a great thing for stimulating creativity! In one fascinating experiment, the researcher divided the participants into two groups. She gave the first group the mental cue that resources were scarce and the second group the mental cue that resources were plentiful. Then, she conducted six different creativity experiments. Some of them were as simple as how to pin a candle to the wall with a pushpin. Guess what! In all six of these tests, the participants who believed that resources were scarce found more creative answers.

The researchers think that when there are lots of resources around, we tend to solve problems by buying and adding to them. But when resources are scarce, we tend to solve problems with what we have, which pushes us to develop the ability to see things from multiple perspectives.

I remember there was also a teacher who shared that he had said that he gave his children very few toys because he found that when there were very few toys, the children were able to tap into 100 uses of the toys! When there were more toys, the children lost interest in developing them instead.

Another great thing about scarcity is that it makes us actively explore. From the very start, we've said that our amazing brains developed the ability to perceive scarcity so that we could explore new resources. It's that feeling of scarcity that motivates us humans to take risks, to push our boundaries, and to build the prosperity we have now.

So, the sense of scarcity is a bit of a double-edged sword. It can lead to addiction, but it can also promote creativity and foster exploration! And it's up to us to decide whether scarcity will lead us down the path of addiction or whether it will help us make progress. We can take control of the sense of scarcity and choose a positive path. If we're always passively manipulated and caught in the cycle of scarcity without realizing it, then we're controlled by scarcity. But if we're always proactive in applying the creativity and motivation brought by scarcity in different scenarios, then scarcity is a good trait that can be used for us!

At the end of the day, it's so important to remember that we have the power to steer the ship of our lives, and it's up to us to make the best choices for ourselves. As long as this is the case, everything can be used for our benefit!

And that's a wrap on the Scarcity Brain! I think it's a really interesting question, don't you? It's so strange why people get addicted to something so shallow! It's actually an instinct that evolution has given us, which is the scarcity mentality. Our minds are wired to crave more when we feel like we don't have enough. It's a natural instinct, but it can also make us more serious and even addicted to things.

I'd like to share one of my own experiences with you. When I look back at the past, I realize that the moments I was addicted to a lot of things, when I take a moment to think about it, it was because I was in some kind of scarcity during that time. I think it was either a problem at work that I couldn't quite crack, or maybe I was just feeling a bit powerless in my life. At that time, I tend to lose my cool and get hooked on quick fixes like shopping, videos, gaming, and so on. I'd love to know if you have a similar experience!

We then chatted about the underlying mechanism behind addiction, the scarcity cycle, which has three steps. The first is opportunity, the second is an unpredictable reward, and the third is rapid repetition. It's pretty likely that if something meets these three criteria, we'll find ourselves hooked!

So, how can we beat those bad habits and start living our best lives? The authors have come up with a two-level solution that I think you'll find really helpful. At the first level, it's all about going against the scarcity cycle. This means staying away from opportunities, eliminating uncertain rewards, and slowing down repetitive actions. And there's another way to beat addiction. It's to swap the scarcity cycle for an abundance cycle. Swap opportunity for deeper experiences. Turn the passive lure of uncertainty into the active use of uncertainty. Dismantle laborious tasks. Create quick repetitions. Do all of this, and you'll accomplish things that are more rewarding for life's happiness.

At the end of the day, scarcity isn't all bad. It's mainly about our ability to turn the negative aspects into positive ones. Ultimately, as long as we nurture our own sense of initiative and manage our inner abundance on a psychological level, our behavior will naturally align with what's best for us, and our vision will naturally be long-term.

I really hope that after listening to this audiobook, you'll be able to do what the subtitle says: "fix your craving mindset, reshape your habits, and embrace a life of sufficiency."