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"Making a plan is important but not urgent, exactly the sort of thing that tunneling leads us to neglect."

"As we reach repeatedly for the most proximate solution to the most immediate problem, over time these short-term fixes create a complex web of commitments."

"The bill today generates a loan, which becomes another (slightly bigger) bill in the future. The cheap medical treatment works for a while, but we will need more expensive medical attention later."

"researches have documented a bias toward the here and now, which they call hyperbolic discounting, or present bias. We overvalue immediate benefits at the expense of future one: this is why it is hard to save, to go to the gym, or to do your taxes early." This ignores, or at least obscures, the cost of uncertainty and risk.

"The present presses automatically on you. The future does not... When scarcity taxes our bandwidth, we become even more focused on the here and now. We need cognitive resources to gauge future needs, and we need executive control to resist present temptations."

"Like all the worthy goals that do not matter when you're speeding to the hospital, the long-term economics of the payday loan do not matter at that moment."

"We asked commuters in Boston the fare at which the taximeter starts. The rich gave the correct answer only 12 percent of the time; the less affluent were correct three times as often. This despite the fact that the rich take taxis much more frequently."

It would be helpful to explain the difference between stress and scarcity. They seem interconnected. It sounds like the way they're using scarcity is that it's ongoing - but to what extent?

"we have shown a particular pattern of improved performance (the focus dividend) and diminished performance (the bandwidth tax), a pattern that anxiety and stress alone cannot explain." why not? Doesn't stress create focus and tunneling?

"we have shown a particular pattern of improved performance (the focus dividend) and diminished performance (the bandwidth tax), a pattern that anxiety and stress alone cannot explain." why not? Doesn't stress create focus and tunneling?

"executive control might improve during periods of stress" - tunneling?

(continued) they were asked to remember an eight-digit number. Those whose minds were not loaded managed to maintain composure, keeping their thoughts to themselves. Not so with the cognitively loaded subjects. They would blurt out rude comments, such as "This is bloody revolting," despite their best intentions.

"In another study, white Australian students were served food, but in this case it was something they found revolting: a chicken foot cooked in a Chinese style that preserved the entire foot intact, claws included. The challenge for the subjects was that this was served by a Chinese experimenter, creating some pressure to act civilized. As in the cake study, some subjects' minds were loaded: (continued)

"Our study revealed that simply raising monetary concerns for the poor erodes cognitive performance even more than being seriously sleep deprived." (Compared to a full night with no sleep)

"we paid people for every correct answer on the Raven's test. Presumably the low-income participants have a greater incentive to do better: after all, the money matters to them more. But they did not do any better; in fact, they did just a tiny bit worse than before." (Compared to which group?)

"we are used to thinking of cognitive capacity as fixed, when in fact it might change with circumstances."

"Much like a central processor, executive control is essential to our ability to function well."

"This leads us to the central hypothesis of this chapter: scarcity directly reduces bandwidth -- not a person's inherent capacity but how much of that capacity is currently available for use." Duane: "Scarcity creates a mindset of worry."

"Too quick to even be aware of. The title of the study says it best: "All I Saw Was the Cake."

(continued) For dieters, in contrast, something interesting happened. They were less likely to see the red dot if they had just seen a picture of food... Of course the dieters were not physically blinded; they were just mentally distracted. Psychologists call this an attentional blink."

"An early study tested [the idea that intrusive thoughts can be as distracting as auditory interruptions] by giving subjects a simple enough task: push a button when you see a red dot on the screen. Sometimes, just before the dot appeared, another picture would flash on the screen. For nondieters, this picture had no effect on whether people saw the dot. (continued)

In a study involving a school near railroad tracks, "Sixth graders on the train side were a full year behind their counterparts on the quieter side... A whole host of subsequent studies have shown that noise can hurt concentration and performance."

"Another manifestation of tunneling is the decision to multitask. We may check email while "listening in" on a conference call, or squeeze in a bit more email on the cell phone over dinner. This has the benefit of saving time, but it comes at a cost: missing something on the call or at dinner or writing a sloppy email."

Subjects playing a game were told to "maximize total points earned" but the authors don't include information about how points were earned in their description of play; this would have been helpful.

"Scarcity creates a powerful goal -- dealing with pressing needs -- that inhibits other goals and considerations." It's like the difference between 'urgent' and 'important.'

p 9 - "In one study, children were asked to estimate from memory, by adjusting a physical device, the size of regular U.S. coins -- from a penny to a half-dollar. The coins "looked" largest to the poorer children, who significantly overestimated the size of the coins. The most valuable coins -- the quarter and half-dollar -- were the most distorted."

p 7 - "Scarcity captures the mind... when we experience scarcity of any kind, we become absorbed by it. The mind orients automatically, powerfully, toward unfulfilled needs... Scarcity is more than just the displeasure of having very little. It changes how we think. It imposes itself on our minds."

p 3 - "Resisting temptation is hard. Resisting all temptations was even harder."