Sendhil Mullainathan

"The poor are not just short of money, they are short of bandwidth."

"Scarcity captures the mind."

"When we are struggling financially, we are not just poorer, we are less capable of making good decisions."

"Poverty is not just about income, it's about attention."

"The bandwidth tax of poverty is real and measurable."

"When your attention is divided, your performance suffers."

"Scarcity creates tunnel vision."

"The poor think differently because their circumstances force them to."

"Financial stress is cognitive stress."

"Juggling is hard because you're not just managing objects, you're managing your mind."

"Time poverty is as real as income poverty."

"When resources are scarce, decision-making becomes harder."

"The psychology of scarcity affects everyone."

"Poverty taxes the mind before it taxes the wallet."

"We underestimate how much circumstances shape behavior."

"Scarcity is not just a personal failing, it's a systemic issue."

"The mind is subject to the same laws of physics as everything else."

"Attention is a finite resource."

"When you're struggling, your IQ effectively drops."

"The poor are not making bad choices, they're making choices under pressure."

"Bandwidth is a better way to understand poverty than willpower."

"Scarcity is sticky; it perpetuates itself."

"We need systems, not just motivation, to overcome scarcity."

"The cost of scarcity is paid in attention and cognition."

"Financial instability creates mental instability."

"Poverty is not a character flaw, it's a cognitive load."

"When we design systems, we must account for scarcity."

"The poor are not lazy, they're cognitively occupied."

"Scarcity mindset is contagious in organizations."

"We have underestimated the bandwidth cost of being poor."