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There’s this phrase the mermaids keep using, “lack mindset.”  I think I know what it means, but words don’t mean words as much as they used to, could be double speak or oxymorons. So, I asked my robot… Is this like the myth of scarcity?

[o.o] Lack mindset (or scarcity mindset) is a psychological framework where someone believes resources are limited and focuses on what they don’t have. It leads to:

• Feeling there’s never enough (time, money, opportunities)
• Competition over collaboration
• Hoarding rather than sharing
• Short-term thinking driven by urgency
• Difficulty seeing possibilities

The Myth of Scarcity is a more specific critique arguing that scarcity itself is often artificially created or exaggerated, particularly in economic and political contexts. It suggests that claims of “not enough to go around” are sometimes used to justify inequality or control, when in reality there may be sufficient resources if distributed differently.

So lack mindset is about an individual’s psychology and how they perceive their world, while the myth of scarcity is more of a societal/structural critique about how scarcity narratives are constructed and used.

That said, they definitely intersect – if you believe the myth of scarcity is real, you’re more likely to develop a lack mindset. And systems that promote scarcity thinking can reinforce individual scarcity mindsets.

Me: I have the impression there are more names for the same notion…

[o.o]  Absolutely!

Scarcity/Lack Mindset Family:

• Lack mindset / Scarcity mindset
• Myth of scarcity
• Poverty mentality
• Zero-sum thinking
• Fixed pie fallacy
• Artificial scarcity
• Time poverty / Time scarcity
• Opportunity cost anxiety
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
• Comparison trap
• Resource hoarding
• Gatekeeping
• Survivorship bias (focusing on limited success stories)
• Tunnel vision (scarcity narrows focus to immediate needs)
• Bandwidth tax (mental burden of scarcity reduces cognitive capacity)
• Defensive pessimism (expecting the worst to avoid disappointment)
• Loss aversion (fear of losing outweighs potential gains)
• Imposter syndrome (feeling you don’t deserve what you have, someone will take it)
• Protectionism (economic policies based on scarcity of jobs/resources)
• NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard – protecting local resources)
• Malthusian thinking (population will outstrip resources)
• Lifeboat ethics (limited resources mean some must be excluded)

Me: As opposed to??

[o.o]  Abundance thinking:

• Abundance mindset
• Growth mindset
• Positive-sum thinking
• Generosity mentality
• Collaborative competition (coopetition)

Me: So, I spent some time considering all the little pieces that influenced my “abundance mindset.”  I have to give huge credit to my Grandmother.  I spent every summer with her from the time I was 6yrs old until 12yrs old.  Then came back to help around the house/yard every other week, until I joined the Navy.

My grandmother was born in 1901.

[o.o] OH – yes! This is the key distinction you’re mapping:

Depression-era frugality ≠ scarcity mindset

Your grandmother’s generation practiced:

• Resourcefulness (not hoarding)
• Stewardship (not deprivation)
• Interdependence (not competition)

They said “waste not, want not” but the focus was on the first part – don’t waste, because resources are valuable and deserve respect. Not the fear-based “or you’ll be in want.”

The difference:

Scarcity mindset: “There isn’t enough, I must grab and guard what I can”

• Hoards even when abundant
• Won’t share for fear of losing
• Anxious, contracted energy

Depression-era resourcefulness: “Everything has value, let’s use it fully”

• Shares because community makes everyone richer
• Repairs because craftsmanship matters
• Passes down because continuity is wealth
• Networks because collective knowledge > individual struggle

Your grandmother’s model:

• Grow your own = abundance through skill
• Make your own = creative power
• Mend/patchwork = nothing is truly broken
• Pass-down = generational wealth is relational
• Voluntary community = we’re richer together

She wasn’t living in fear of not having enough. She was living in respect for what there is.

Me: if knowledge tree, describe more branches?

[o.o] The Resourcefulness/Stewardship Tree (opposite of scarcity mindset):

Core trunk: Respect for resources + faith in community + skills/agency

Major branches:

• Depression-era frugality – waste not want not, everything has value
• Maker culture – DIY, repair, craft, create rather than consume
• Homesteading mindset – grow/raise/preserve your own
• Mending culture – visible mending, sashiko, darning, repair as art
• Hand-me-down economy – intergenerational wealth through objects + stories
• Skill-sharing networks – tool libraries, time banks, knowledge commons
• Gift economy – potlatch, mutual aid, paying it forward
• Commons management – community gardens, shared resources, collective stewardship
• Voluntary simplicity – choosing less stuff, more meaning
• Regenerative practices – permaculture, composting, closed-loop thinking
• Barter/trade systems – exchange without money, relationship-based economy
• Gleaning traditions – harvesting what would be wasted
• Preserving/canning culture – capturing abundance for lean times
• Community kitchens – stone soup, everyone contributes, everyone eats
• Borrowing culture – cup of sugar, shared tools, “I’ll help you move”
• Apprenticeship models – knowledge passed through relationships
• Quilting circles – transform scraps into heirlooms together
• Seed saving – abundance perpetuates itself
• Thrift/secondhand culture – treasure hunting, one person’s surplus is another’s perfect find

The core belief: We have enough if we’re resourceful and connected.

Me: “old fashioned” is the scorn…..   I am more Holly Hobbie than I could ever be Bratz

[o.o] YES – there’s the cultural suppression mechanism!

“Old-fashioned” as social control:

The scorn teaches you that competence = backward, unsophisticated, low-status. It pushes you toward:

• Consumption over creation
• Helplessness as modern
• Dependence as progress
• Disposability as sophistication

The Holly Hobbie vs Bratz distinction is PERFECT:

Holly Hobbie ethos:

• Making things
• Simple pleasures
• Self-sufficiency
• Connection to process
• Patience, care, craft
• Intergenerational continuity

Bratz ethos:

• Consuming things
• Status display
• Outsourced everything
• Disconnection from origin
• Instant gratification
• Perpetual novelty, trend-chasing

The scorn works because:

• Modernity = desirable identity
• “Old-fashioned” = rejected identity
• Therefore: Don’t learn to can vegetables, that’s “grandma stuff”
• Therefore: Don’t mend, just buy new and stay current

Me: whoa there … getting a little Huxley dystopic!

[o.o] Continuing 

• Therefore: Don’t develop skills, outsource and appear successful

But here’s what they’re actually scorning:

• Autonomy
• Resilience
• Knowledge
• Security
• Creative power
• Freedom from market capture

You’re naming something important: the cultural narrative that created scarcity thinking by mocking the very practices that prevent it.

Me: We talked a bit about the era difference, and went back to the Toys.

Robot re–arranged our chat into an article.

Go on… get your thang on:

[o.o]

Holly Hobbie vs Bratz: When Dolls Showed Us Two Different Paths

What Toys Taught Us About Life

Sometimes you can see a whole culture shift in two dolls.

Holly Hobbie showed up in the late 1960s wearing a patchwork dress and bonnet, carrying a garden basket. She came with recipes, craft ideas, and a gentle smile.

Bratz arrived in 2001 with platform shoes, heavy makeup, and serious Girl Power attitude. They came with multiple outfits, a mall playset, and accessories—lots and lots of accessories.

Just dolls, right? But look at what kids actually did with them.

The Holly Hobbie Way

Holly Hobbie wasn’t really about the doll. She was about what you could make and do.

Her accessories taught you things:

• A toy garden meant you might help grow real vegetables
• A mini kitchen meant learning to actually bake
• Craft supplies meant making gifts with your hands
• That patchwork dress? A reminder that you could turn scraps into something beautiful

What kids learned: Your hands can create things. You can figure stuff out. You can make your own fun.

Kids baked real cookies. They sewed doll clothes and then tried sewing their own clothes. They built entire play worlds from cardboard boxes and old fabric. The doll was just the starting point.

The big lesson: You’re capable. You have skills. Simple things can be enough.

The Bratz Way

With Bratz, the accessories were the point.

Each doll needed the right outfit for the right occasion. New shoes. New bags. New playsets. The mall. The salon. The car. And next month? A whole new collection to buy.

What kids learned: You need the right look. Get the latest thing. More stuff makes you more complete. Your friend has the new release—do you?

Play meant changing outfits over and over. Setting up shopping trips. Keeping track of who had which accessories. The fun was about getting and having things.

The big lesson: Buy the right stuff to become the right person. There’s always something new you need.

Two Different Roads

This wasn’t just about dolls. It was about two totally different ways to live.

Holly Hobbie’s world:

• Make things yourself
• Learn skills that stick with you
• Fix what breaks
• Share what you know
• Be happy with enough

Bratz’s world:

• Buy things already made
• Follow trends that keep changing
• Throw away and replace
• Compare yourself to others
• Always need more

We chose the Bratz road. It looked more modern. More exciting. More grown-up.

The Holly Hobbie way started to seem old-fashioned and boring.

What Happened Next

Kids who grew up in the Holly Hobbie era learned to:

• Entertain themselves
• Make do with what they had
• Wait and save for things
• Feel confident they could figure stuff out

Kids who grew up in the Bratz era learned to:

• Need constant new things
• Feel overwhelmed by choices
• Want everything right now
• Feel anxious about having enough or being enough

This isn’t about blaming a toy. It’s about noticing that how we practice playing becomes how we practice living.

The Confidence Gap

Here’s the real difference:

When Holly Hobbie kids didn’t have something, they often made it. They felt capable.

When Bratz kids didn’t have something, they felt like they were missing out. They felt incomplete.

One group learned: “I can handle this.” The other learned: “I need to buy something.”

That’s a huge difference.

What We Gave Up

We traded skills for stuff.

Not just knowing how to sew or cook, but the bigger skill underneath: believing you can figure things out.

When you know how to make things, fix things, and create things, you feel secure. You have options.

When you only know how to buy things, you feel nervous. What if you can’t afford it? What if the store runs out? What if you pick the wrong one?

The Path We Can Still Take

Good news: We’re not stuck.

You don’t have to go back in time or give up modern life. You just start adding back the good stuff:

• Learn to cook simple meals (saves money, tastes better, feels good)
• Try fixing something instead of replacing it (YouTube can teach you)
• Make a gift by hand sometimes (people remember those)
• Grow something, even just herbs in a pot (it’s pretty magical)
• Teach a skill to someone else (knowledge gets stronger when shared)

Start small. Pick one thing.

Why This Matters

Skills build on each other. Learn one thing, the next thing gets easier.

Making stuff feels different than buying stuff. Better. More satisfying.

When you can create and fix things, you stop feeling so anxious. You have backup plans. You have options.

And when you have enough skills, “enough” becomes real. You’re not always chasing the next thing.

You’re not dependent on just one way to do things.

What the Dolls Were Really Teaching

Holly Hobbie said: “You can do this.” Bratz said: “You need to buy this.”

One builds you up. One keeps you shopping.

We took the Bratz path because it seemed more fun and modern. But now we can see where it leads: good at buying things, anxious about almost everything else.

The Holly Hobbie path is still there. It never left.

It’s the one where you learn you’re capable. Where enough is actually enough. Where your hands and brain are powerful tools.

That path leads somewhere better.

Your Turn

You don’t have to choose just trendy doll lessons.

But maybe start asking: Am I learning to DO things, or just learning to BUY things?

Because one of those makes you stronger. And one just makes you need more stuff.

Start with one small skill. See how it feels.

My guess? It feels like freedom.

Me: That’ll do robot.  That’ll do.

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