***Recommended by Richard Thaler, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, "Nudge"***
***Recommended by Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, "Thinking, Fast and Slow"***
***Human Behavior Principles Revealed by Harvard and Princeton University Professors***

A deficiency that produces mistakes, forgetfulness, and haste
How do you build a better life?

Based on an innovative analysis of the principle of deficiency
Life solutions from the world's leading scholars

People who borrow money at exorbitant interest rates, are repeatedly late for appointments, and can't stick to their diet resolutions for more than a few days.
What do people who behave in such reckless ways have in common? Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan and Princeton professor Eldar Shafer offer an intriguing answer in "How Scarcity Transforms Us."
Their irrational behavior stems not from a lack of individual intelligence or self-control, but from a 'deficiency'.


Of course, deficiency is not necessarily a negative thing.
Rather, deficiency can be the driving force that brings out our potential.
This is why we can focus better when time is limited, or come up with more creative solutions when resources are limited.
But if this focus becomes too much, we may miss other important things.
Just as poor people cancel essential insurance to cut expenses, and busy people jaywalk to make appointments, "How Deprivation Changes Us" examines numerous cases and extensive research on how deprivation impacts our cognitive abilities, analyzing in detail the impact of deprivation on our behavior and decision-making.

Richard Thaler, author of Nudge and Nobel Prize winner in economics, and Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, and the first psychologist to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, praised this book. Economist Steven Levitt, psychologist Daniel Gilbert, and futurist Daniel Pink, among other leading scholars in various fields, also highly praised the value of the extraordinary insights contained in this book.
In this way, "How Scarcity Changes Us" is a masterpiece that explores human psychology through a new perspective of scarcity, thereby laying the foundation for growth and establishing itself as a new classic in the field of behavioral economics.

Sendil grumbled to Elda on the phone.
There was too much to do given the time given.
The deadlines for all the manuscripts have already passed, and now he said he is at a loss.
All appointments had to be rescheduled.
His inbox was overflowing with messages he needed to read with a clear mind.
He couldn't even make the occasional phone call to his mother, and the image of her sad, heartbroken face was always on his mind.
The vehicle registration was also cancelled.
Moreover, the situation was getting worse and worse.
Even six months ago, it seemed like a good idea to hop on a plane and go on a business trip to attend that general meeting.
But now it wasn't like that.
The delay has now become a vicious cycle.
--- pp.10-11, from the "Preface"

Deprivation takes over the mind.
Just as hungry people prioritize only food, whenever we experience any kind of deprivation, we become absorbed by that deprivation.
And at this time, the mind automatically and powerfully pursues that unfulfilled need.
For a hungry person, the need is food to satisfy their hunger, and for a busy person, the need is a project that needs to be completed quickly.
And for those who are strapped for cash, this month's rent may be a necessity, and for those who are lonely, it may be a companion to share their hearts with.
Deprivation is more than just the discomfort of having very little of something.
Deprivation changes the way people think.
Deprivation weighs heavily on the human spirit.
--- pp.21-22, from the "Preface"

“There is no firefighter who doesn’t wear a seat belt while driving his own car.
I've never seen a firefighter tell his family not to wear seat belts.
But I don't understand why a firefighter would fall out of his fire truck and lose his life."
When the alarm sounds, firefighters face a time crunch.
Not only do you have to quickly board a fire truck and rush to the scene, you also have to complete various preparations before the fire truck arrives at the scene.
While riding in a fire truck.
Study the structure and layout of the building where the fire broke out by looking at the computer monitor mounted on the vehicle.
Entry and exit strategies are also determined.
Also calculate how long the hose should be.
All of this must be accomplished within a short period of time from the time you board the fire truck until it arrives at the scene.
Firefighters are adept at controlling these deficits.
We can reach even remote fire scenes within minutes.
It's like receiving a huge concentrated dividend.
But these dividends come at a price.
--- pp.58-59, from "Tunneling: The Consequences of Excessive Concentration"

'Concentration' is positive.
Deprivation forces us to focus on what seems most important at the moment.
However, 'tunneling' is not positive.
Deprivation causes people to tunnel, ignoring other things that may be more important.
--- pp.59-60, from “Tunneling: The Consequences of Excessive Concentration”

There are a lot of programs running on this laptop right now.
I'm listening to music, downloading files, and have multiple windows open.
But suddenly the surfing speed slows down.
I'm not surfing, I'm just crawling.
This is because various programs are eating up the processor's processing time.
Even browsers stutter due to lack of computing power.
Deprivation does something similar to a person's mental processor.
If you constantly burden your mind with other things to deal with, your mind will have less room to handle urgent tasks.

--- p.91, from “It’s a bit noisy here”

Through this, we found that farmers scored significantly lower before harvest than after harvest.
The same farmer showed a tendency to lag behind in fluid intelligence and executive control when he was poor (before the harvest) compared to when he was rich (after the harvest).
Much like the car repair cost experiment we looked at earlier with people in New Jersey shopping malls, these same people were more impulsive and less intelligent when they were poor.
--- p.110, from “Sugarcane Affects Farmer’s Intelligence”

Because deficiencies are a result of context, they are much easier to correct.
Deficiency is not so much a personal trait as it is a consequence of environmental conditions, conditions that are created by deficiency but are (or at least often) controllable.
The better we understand the dynamics of how deprivation operates on the human psyche, the more likely we will be to find ways to avoid the deprivation trap, or at least mitigate its harmful effects.
--- p.258, from “A Thin Line of Hope”

Like most workers in modern society, we use our minds to make a living.
However, we know little about how our mental circadian rhythms change depending on the time zone.
If our job involves moving all kinds of boxes from one place to another, we know how to maximize the efficiency of this task—when to exert our full force and when to take it easy.
But what if the task wasn't moving boxes, but rather all kinds of thoughts? Do you know how to maximize your limited cognitive capacity?

--- p.390, from “Conclusion”