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

by Michael Easter

Nguyen reiterated that modern life is one big circus of uncertainty. “What we should value is unclear. And our values are hard to balance,” he said. This uncertainty is stressful and uncomfortable. And it’s everywhere. Always. Everyday life is often the opposite of a fun escape. Rather, it’s something we frequently want to escape. Enter games. This is why games are so powerful and why we play them. “Games are a balm for the confusion and anxiety of real life,” said Nguyen. “They give us a little world where we can manage and understand everything. We know exactly what we are doing and why we are doing it. And when we are done, we know exactly how well we have done. Games offer us a momentary escape from the confusion of the world.” They do this with those, as he put it, “point systems that are incredibly narrow, incredibly simple, and incredibly crisp.”