Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Scarcity Brain. I've read several books on brain hacking, and while this one had some thought-provoking insights, it didn't resonate as strongly with me as others. I appreciated the book's premise—that we all fall into patterns of overindulgence due to our evolutionary history. Exploring how "scarcity loops" and gamification affect our behavior was interesting, and I enjoyed learning about the brain's natural inclinations. However, the practical advice felt out of touch for those living ordinary, constrained lifestyles. The solutions often featured individuals who escaped modern pressures (astronauts, monks, survivalists). Still, the suggestions fell short for those of us juggling everyday demands like raising a family on a budget. I would have liked to see more realistic, accessible strategies for people who can’t just leave their environments. The late mention of Christianity as a solution also seemed misplaced in an otherwise secular discussion. Overall, while Scarcity Brain starts a meaningful conversation, it may be more useful for readers with more flexibility in their lives.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an honest review.

I love how informative this book was, it touched into so many aspects of life. Michael's style is very approachable as he weaves his anecdotes with the facts of relevant studies or interviews with experts.

I had been waiting on The Comfort Crisis through the Libby app forever and actually received it while in the middle of The Scarcity Brain, so there was a bit of an overlap between me reading them both. There were a lot of similar themes throughout, but The Scarcity Brain focused more on why we crave all of these comforts so much and how to walk away from them. We're simply wired to always want more, which obviously is completely unhelpful in our modern world. It was fascinating to learn about bison jumps - equivalent to our modern day habit of buying way too much at the grocery store and subsequently throwing it away later.

I enjoy Easter's writing style and his ability to interweave his research seamlessly into personal narratives. I think he's doing a noble job of helping modern humans, but being alive in this era means a never-ending battle against junk food and buying crap we just don't really need. Sigh.

Thank you, NetGalley and Rodale Books for the ARC.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very well researched book. My only complaint is that the author could have been a bit more concise.

This highly readable self-help book delves into our addictive behaviors -- what they are, how they originated and how to understand and ultimately overcome them. I like the way that each chapter is a vignette with Michael Easter going to people and their experiences that personify the issue. For example, with overeating, visiting a remote tribe where no cardiovascular problems exist, or when discussing gambling, visiting the scientists involved in transforming mechanical slot machines into video-gamified ones, and how this video-gamified model has been applied to so many other areas of our lives. Readable, refreshing and helpful. Thank you, Netgalley and Rodale books, for the ARC.

I have been in a bit of a funk lately and I was looking for something to snap me out of the monotony and mild depressions. This book was extremely well written with entertaining story examples and filled me with a deeper understanding of the traps of the scarcity mind. Happiness seems so hard to achieve, only to wake up and feel you must search all over again for the fleeting mistress.

I had hoped, as I read, that Michael would wrap it all up with a simple answer but the journey is different for all of us. I wrapped up with a strong desire to simplify my life, be purposeful about my habits, and striving to do harder things.

Great read, highly recommended.

I hadn't heard of the "scarcity brain," but the concept behind it makes sense. It follows the well-known idea of "craving/opportunity - unpredictable reward - repeatability." Fans of books like Atomic Habits or Nudge will enjoy this book.

It is a good cross between scientific and readable pop press. It contains useful tips for those who want to stop doom scrolling and cravings.

I was very intrigued by the premise of Scarcity Brain but was left wanting more. It initially sounded like it would have more concrete strategies to combat "scarcity brain," however it just felt like we were given scenarios/examples and takeaways, but not anything more than surface level tips. I think having a scarcity mindset is responsible for a lot of issues in our lives, but some of the things the author attributed to scarcity brain felt like a stretch, or could have it as an aspect, but not the main driver behind certain behaviors or thoughts. Overall I feel pretty neutral about it, as there was some interesting information, but it didn't dig in enough as much as I wanted. Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the eARC.

We do better with less, and with a challenging goal in front of us. Not new information, but Easter puts it into some hard practice, taking his own challenge to the Arctic Tundra. Lots of stats and details about why this lifestyle makes you appreciate, and do more and live with less. The man lives what he preaches, and his writing explains it well.

I read Michael Easter's previous book, The Comfort Crisis, and found it engaging and helpful. His new book, Scarcity Brain is excellent as well. I appreciated how his personal experiences informed the points he was making in the book. At times it felt more like a memoir and at other times, data was used to drive home the points.

Starting off by covering slot machines and how they are designed to loop our brain was familiar, as many authors are talking about this in connection to our phones and tablets. The genius of the book was in showing how opportunity, unpredictable rewards and quick repeatability are present in other areas of life as well. I found chapter 5, "Billions of Pills" to be very interesting as it took on the challenge of addiction as a choice of a disease.

The book was educational and entertaining at the same time. I enjoyed the author's writing style as he added a mix of personal experience, data, humor and common sense.

Thank you to Net Galley and Rodale for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a fascinating book about how scarcity is an inherent part of our life - some due to our brain chemistry and how it occurs as part of habits or in response to challenges in life. Some examples are hoarding and minimalism, drug and food addiction, social media and dating apps, etc. The author brings understanding from the perspective of scientific studies and every day stories of people who struggle or have created healthy behaviors. He also looks at how many things are made to take advantage of our scarcity brain - apps, slot machines, marketing, food formulations. At the end of the book, he gives solid steps on how to overcome or reframe scarcity brain scenarios in your daily life. This is great information to absorb and use in daily life to make choices for a happier and more fulfilling life.

If you haven't read The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, then you need to, right now. If you are thinking about reading Scarcity Brain, do it as well, today. I read these books , I read them out loud to my kids. They make for some great "aha" moments and some beautiful conversations with your kids (or friends... maybe read it with a friend, that would be excellent). Do yourself a favor and make time to read Michael Easter's books.

It’s a great read!

The scarcity mindset will keep you striving and trading your life energy (which you might not have) for money (which you probably won’t *need*) long past the point of abundance.

Learn how to recognize when our primitive lizard brains keep chasing more, and find your own abundance mindset.

I recently read Michael Easter's, "Comfort Crisis" and loved it. When I found out he had another book just about to be published, I jumped at the chance to read it. His second book, "Scarcity Brain", did not disappoint. I flew this this book. The first part of the book explains the scarcity loop and how we get hooked into it. The second half of the book explains aspects of life where the scarcity loop either improves our lives or inhibits it.

I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this book. It will be one of those books along with "Comfort Crisis" that I will revisit very often. Worth a read then another read!

Good book. Especially appealing to those who enjoyed Comfort Crisis. Not sure that this will provide the same entry to Easter’s approach/thought as the earlier book, but it serves a worthy companion.

I really enjoyed reading through this one because it took me back to the behaviorism courses that I took as part of my graduate program and applied them to more modern problems; not that these are really new problems. Overcoming the wiring of our brain and the patterns that we learn as children seems to be a hot topic these days and this book is a very approachable entrance into this world of info for the non-psyc majors.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rodale Books for an ARC of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of Scarcity Brain.

I've read a number of these brain-hacking books over the years, and while Scarcity Brain had a few things I really liked, overall I did not find it as useful as others.

First off, I'll go over what I liked. I really appreciated the premise; that we all fall into repetitive actions that veer into overindulgence in our modern era. Many of us struggle with it. I enjoyed reading about how natural this mental process is, and how rooted in the evolution of our hunter/gatherer pasts. I liked reading about gambling and "gamification".

I enjoyed getting a clear understanding of "the what", but did not find "the how" sections as helpful in combating "Scarcity Loops". I found the people he interviewed to be largely those who escaped modern life entirely or were never part of it (astronaut, survivalist, monk etc.), not those who (like many readers) exist in low to middle class lifestyles and are trapped in 9 to 5 jobs to keep families afloat. I'm a mom of 3 and I have to raise my family surrounded by these triggers. I cannot escape to a new environment.

Maybe he could have interviewed a more ordinary person like me. I would tell him I use the library for the dopamine, and thrift shops to mimic "the hunt". I challenge myself with online recipes as a way to eat cheap and be grateful for my delicious food. Even NetGalley is a free form of "treasure hunting with unpredictable rewards". (Thanks NG!) And lastly, I garden as a way to keep an ongoing sense of exploration in my life. I dream of escaping to a farm but at the moment, we can't afford to leave the suburbs.

I had the same problem with James Clear's Atomic Habits (who once suggested giving money away as a self-punishment for failing a habit. Which in case it's not obvious, is not a viable suggestion for someone with food or wealth insecurity.) Suggestions like that come across as out of touch with lower class folks who truly live with scarcity. I wish books like this did more to address day to day solutions for average people.

I also didn't appreciate the solution of Christianity to cope. To toss it in at the end of the book felt a little bamboozley in a secular book. I find religion to be a regressive suggestion for the kind of change non-religious people wish to see in the world.

This book might be more useful for religious, the wealthy, or those unencumbered by children, none of which happen to apply to me. But I appreciate the discussion being started.

In a (mostly) interesting read, Easter explores the power of behavior modification strategies seen in various consumer settings (gambling, food, etc..) and hypothesizes about a scarcity cycle. Drawing from various observational studies (mostly Western), Easter explains how our habits formation result from a continuous loop of craving and satisfaction, and our potential motivations behind them.

The narrative style is (too) conversational and is filled with pages of extraneous information about his travel or what he ate during the interview, etc, These sections could have done with a less lenient editor. In the end, it is not as engaging as Gladwell's approach or as pithy as Duhigg's book on similar/related topics. Nevertheless, the discussion on meditation/prayer, shed hunting are unique topics other pop pysch books havent covered.

While the reader gets some insights on the "scarcity brain", Easter loses an opportunity to codify what can be done to resist or recognize the patterns. Nevertheless, pop psych enthusiasts will like the book and gain a few new insights.

Sort of slow at first but picked up as I got further into the book. Easter covers a lot of material that was fairly new to me. I liked the endorsement from Melissa Urban of The Whole 30. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Michael Easter’s Scarcity Brain is a deeply researched book about why we do what we do: why do we eat that entire bag of chips? Because we might never get more. Why do we gamble? Work too much? Drink to excess? Do drugs? Because we are evolutionarily wired to overindulge in substances and activities that maybe, just might, could, become harder to access next time. This drive is ruthlessly exploited by the people and entities that want to sell us more and more — or get us hooked on gambling, shopping, or anything else they can make money on.

Easter’s book explores the psychology behind Scarcity Brain. It looks at the emotional and behavioral drivers that keep us in the scarcity loop. Easter’s writing is personal and accessible — he brings the reader into his investigations so that we, too, can experience what he’s learning. From Las Vegas to Iraq to the Amazon, it all adds to the case he builds for how humans look at risk and reward.

Easter suggests replacing scarcity loops with abundance loops --and offers examples-- but his main focus is on awareness. We need to know we're being manipulated in order to find a way out. After all, he says, “We have one shot at life. The scarcity loop … pushes us into short-term thinking … at the expense of long-term rewards, growth, and meaning”. Wise words.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.