Cat

“The challenges of sticking to a plan, the inability to resist a new leather jacket or a new project, the forgetfulness (the car registration, making a phone call, paying a bill) and the cognitive slips (the misestimated bank account balance, the mishandled invitation) all happen because of a shortage of bandwidth. There is one particularly important consequence: it further perpetuates scarcity. It was not a coincidence that Sendhil and Shawn fell into a trap and stayed there. Scarcity creates its own trap.”
― Sendhil Mullainathan, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

“The poor stay poor, the lonely stay lonely, the busy stay busy, and diets fail. Scarcity creates a mindset that perpetuates scarcity.”
― Sendhil Mullainathan, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

“We fail to build slack because we focus on what must be done now and do not think enough about all the things that can arise in the future. [...] What should you do? Should you leave spaces open in your schedule...just in case something unexpected comes up...? In effect, yes. That's what you do when you allocate forty minutes to drive somewhere a half hour away...When you face scarcity, slack is a necessity.”
― Eldar Shafir, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

“There's nothing fucking worse than knowing that you're just like everybody else.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko