Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough

by Michael Easter

it doesn’t matter how much gas we give good new habits; if we don’t resolve our bad ones, we still have our foot on the brake.

True!

The worst habits are things we can do over and over and over in rapid succession—eventually to our detriment. These behaviors are often fun and rewarding in the short term but backfire in the long run.

Damn! Mind blown

But why do we suck so bad at moderating? Why do we keep eating when we’re full? Why do we keep shopping when we own too much? Why do we keep drinking when we’re already tipsy? Why do we scroll social media when it makes us miserable? Why do we binge-watch another episode even when we realize a more meaningful life beyond the screen is passing us by? Why do we get stuck? Stuck doing the same thing we regret over and over and over.

Why!?

But why do we suck so bad at moderating? Why do we keep eating when we’re full? Why do we keep shopping when we own too much? Why do we keep drinking when we’re already tipsy? Why do we scroll social media when it makes us miserable? Why do we binge-watch another episode even when we realize a more meaningful life beyond the screen is passing us by? Why do we get stuck? Stuck doing the same thing we regret over and over and over.

Brain fireworks! Mind blown!

A scarcity cue is a piece of information that fires on what researchers call our scarcity mindset. It leads us to believe we don’t have enough. We then instinctually fixate on attaining or doing that one thing we think will solve our problem and make us feel whole.

What is a scarcity cue?

We now have an abundance—some might say an overload—of the things we’ve evolved to crave. Things like food (especially the salty, fatty, sugary variety), possessions (homes filled with online purchases), information (the internet), mood adjusters (drugs and entertainment), and influence (social media).

scarcity loop—satisfying us in the short term but hurting us in the long run.

And some robust new research shows that blindly aiming for less can change us for the worse.

They’ve found that permanent change and lasting satisfaction lie in finding enough.

nothing seems to trigger scarcity brain more than slot machines.

You better believe the A.I. revolution hasn’t been lost on the gaming industry.

Insight

“And this is all possible,” he continued, “because we have seventy-three-plus companies who partner with us to provide cash or equipment.” Caesars is the leading partner. But tech and gaming giants like Adobe, Intel, LG, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, Zoom, Boyd Gaming, and DraftKings are also financially vested.

Wow!

The Center for Gaming Innovation is part of Black Fire Innovation.

Research

And the lab’s graduates don’t just end up working for the world’s biggest casinos, slot machine manufacturers, and mobile betting apps. They, too, follow the money. They’re developing new behavior-modification technologies for U.S. military contractors, law enforcement, tech start-ups, and massive online retailers.

you can design products that compel people to repeat all sorts of other behaviors,

Common sense dictates we will quickly stop doing something if it gets us nothing.

Growing up in the Great Depression had altered his psyche. It branded him with an unrelenting drive and energy that he focused entirely on getting rich.

Si Redd - Look up

Redd understood the psychology of extinction. He knew that experiencing too many losses in a row is no fun. Gambling is far more exciting when we’re winning—even if those wins are small.

Psychology Of existence

Casinos call winning less than we bet “losses disguised as wins.”

our brains respond to these “losses disguised as wins” as small wins rather than small losses. They lead us to play longer and spend more money because they maintain hope, suspense, and excitement.

Loses disguised as wins makes the brain maintain hope, suspense and excitement.

The behaviors we do in rapid succession—from gambling to overeating to overbuying to binge-watching to binge drinking and so much more—are powered by a “scarcity loop.” It has three parts.

Opportunity—> Unpredictable Rewards—> Quick Repeatability

WHat are the 3 parts of the scarcity loop?

What Redd uncovered is near-compulsive repeat consumption.

Compusive repeat Consumption

the more we have the opportunity and desire to quickly repeat it, the greater its effect on us.

Describe compulsive repeat consumption?

Opportunity The first part of the scarcity loop is opportunity. An opportunity to get something of value that improves our life.

Unpredictable Rewards

The second phase of the scarcity loop is unpredictable rewards. The rewards of everyday actions are predictable.

The brain’s excitement and reward circuitry react strongest during these moments where we’re waiting to find out if we got the reward.

The scientists wrote that near misses “invigorate play,” because our brains register these near misses similarly to wins.

the near misses become fun and rewarding in and of themselves, even though we lost.

Quick Repeatability

Scarcity loops, on the other hand, are immediately repeatable. We see opportunity, receive rewards sometimes, and then do it all over again. As much as we’d like.

3. Quick repeatability

“People today do make decisions that involve opportunity and unpredictable rewards, like our diet choices, financial planning, or buying a house.

“It might take us ten, thirty, or even fifty years to learn whether our house is a gold mine or money pit or if our diet led to health or disease.”

First, the opportunity could go away.

Second, the rewards could stop trickling in.

Third, the repetition could stop being quick.

said Sahl. “But you’re asking the wrong question. You’re assuming people play only to win. Gambling allows us to experience risks and thrills, and that’s fun.”

any hobby that costs time or money is a losing venture.

Falling into the scarcity loop can be fun. The combination of opportunity, unpredictable rewards, and quick repeatability provides the structure for the ultimate game.

Evolution drilled our attraction to the scarcity loop into our head. It’s precisely why our brains reinforce falling into the scarcity loop.

dopamine is linked to all the fun stuff humans do.

sex, drugs, and gambling all cause our brain to shoot out dopamine.

“So dopamine was considered the pleasure neu...

The theory was that these acts were just a means of chasing a dopamine high.

DOpemine high

dopamine has become a bit of a patsy for every bad human behavior ever.

it doesn’t make us do or believe anything. “It makes us more likely to pursue reward, even in situations where that reward is maladaptive,”

Speaking about dopamine

Once we know something is pleasurable or rewarding, dopamine is primarily released when we’re pursuing and anticipating receiving that pleasurable thing, not when we’re actually receiving the pleasurable thing.

The formula is this: We do a thing. If the thing was rewarding, we’re now more likely to do the thing again in similar conditions.

Dopamine formula

For example, let’s say we arrive home stressed from work and have a glass of wine. If that glass of wine relieves our stress, it’s as if our brain goes, “Aha! That was good. Remember that.”

DOpamine example