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

by Michael Easter

As the slope let off and the rocks transitioned to pines, Zerra was scanning for antlers and skulls. She told me she understands that working people face constraints. So this isn’t any sort of judgment. “If you were running a company or had a lot of family counting on you and wanted to get away but only had six days,” she said, “I can understand why you’d pay to get the most out of those six days. You’d end up buying the Happy Meal experience. You don’t want to plan and you don’t want anything to go wrong. You have limited time and you’re thinking of all the other responsibilities you have. “I get that,” she said. “But I just feel like money hasn’t served me in the sense of having better experiences compared to not having as much money. Money brings more control but also less adventure. When I start with fewer resources and materials, whatever I earn, whatever problem I solve myself, I enjoy every moment a little more than if I had unlimited resources. There’s something so freeing and incredible about it. The word ‘empowering’ has become kind of gross, but it’s empowering in a sense to know that you’re creating your own experience and that you’re relying on yourself. And then, when it’s over, there’s a greater sense of satisfaction because you’re like, holy shit, I just did all of that.”