Scarcity: Research Paper

Submitted By juradoj2
Words: 1707
Pages: 7

Jorge Jurado
Professor Caine
ENWR 105-AA
29 September 2014
Managing Scarcity Throughout an Assignment
Whether it is in high school or college, it seems that at one point or another we find ourselves with an insufficient amount of time. Sendhil Mullainathan’s and Eldar Shafir’s book Scarcity:Why Having Too Little Means So Much defines scarcity as,”having less than you feel you need”(page 15). One assignment in high school that I can relate to the components of Scarcity was my junior year English research paper. Research papers tend to be assigned with a generous amount of time in order to complete all the steps needed. Even with an abundance of time, the negative effects of not managing scarcity can still arise. This assignment was the most important of all because completing it not only counted as a majority part of our grade, but if it was not submitted we would not be able to pass the course. I decided to make Deepak Chopra my main focus through out my assignment because I was most familiar with his theories and books. While scarcity is inevitable throughout any assignment, there are certain techniques to properly deal with it. These techniques depend on ones desire, and the schools commitment in aiding the students dealing with the conflicts that scarcity up brings. It is vital to learn how to control scarcity in order to become successful in any present assignment and future situations.
Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir create a very interesting argument in their book. They argue that scarcity changes how we do things within a society and as individuals. It changes the significance of our responsibilities when we have too little of a resource. A resource can be time, money, and capabilities. Throughout my research paper I was very fortunate of having a teacher that took many aspects of our research paper into considerations. My teacher was very flexible and encouraging; she allowed us to pick the authors for the topic of our research paper. She allowed this flexibility because she wanted us to write about someone we were passionate about. Deciding what to write my paper on was not difficult at all because I was a huge follower of Chopra’s work. Deepak Chopra is an Indian-American author, public speaker, and also a physician. He bases his work on alternative medicine, attempting to incorporate mind and soul wellness. I had a huge appreciation of his ideas, which led me to choose him as my topic for my most important assignment of the year. The objective of my research paper was to support his concepts that were opposed by many critiques.
Unconsciously, we tend to take the abundance of time for granted. Our teacher assigned us our research paper giving us a total of 5 weeks to complete the entire assignment. I realized the tremendous abundance of time I had to complete this paper. Besides our actual research paper we had other small requirements we needed to complete (citations, research, books, note cards). In the book Scarcity, it gives an example of how abundance effects our decision making. It went into detail how abundance effects us particularly in a shopping situation. Both authors had a friend who was a behavioral researcher. He was experiencing the negative effects of having an abundant resource. When knowing how the price of the truffles he consumed were compared to other higher quality items like wine or saving up for a bigger apartment did he then notice the value of his dollar. If the behavioral researcher knew how much value his $3 dollars had his decision could have been different. The author states, “Abundance means freedom from trade-offs. When we buy something under abundance, we do not feel we have to give anything up”(Page 241). This influenced me in a similar way as it effected the shopper. Since I had a more than plenty full amount of time, I felt as if I didn't need to give up anything up like socializing, relaxing, working out, or anything not related to my research paper. The