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- It ain't about who ya aren't.
🦆 CHILL THE DUCK OUT
Volume 014: It ain’t about who ya aren’t.
💭 Cold Open
So there I was, spending my evening doing the glamorous work of cutting carpet padding for the new hallway runners in our house. Living the dream, right?
Naturally, I needed some background noise to make the process slightly more thrilling than watching foam curl. And because I’m a sucker for documentaries and treasure hunts, I threw on Netflix’s special about Forrest Fenn’s infamous buried treasure.
Quick recap for the uninitiated: Fenn was an eccentric art dealer who hid a literal treasure chest full of gold in the Rocky Mountains and published a poem with clues on how to find it. The treasure sat undiscovered for a decade, during which thousands of people risked life, limb, and GPS signal trying to track it down.
The first episode of the documentary followed three folks on their quest, but one of them, a younger guy named Christopher Hurst, really stuck with me. He didn’t have much. Couldn’t even afford the book that contained the poem of clues, so he made photocopies of every page at the library.
And yet, while talking about all this, he casually dropped a line that made me pause mid-cut on that carpet foam:
“We ain’t too rich.”
Not, “We’re broke.”
Not, “We didn’t have anything.”
Not even a whiff of pity.
Just a soft, simple reframing.
And that’s what this week’s newsletter is all about: reminding ourselves that it ain’t about who ya aren’t. It’s about what you’ve got — even when it ain’t much — and choosing to see the treasure you’re already sitting on.
🧠 The Science Bit
Turns out Christopher Hurst wasn't just being polite when he said "We ain't too rich" instead of "We're broke." He was accidentally demonstrating one of the most powerful psychological phenomena researchers have discovered: the difference between abundance and scarcity mindset.
And the kicker is that science shows this simple reframe literally changes how your brain processes reality. Like, measurably. With fancy brain scans and everything.
When Your Brain Goes Full Paranoid vs. Full Treasure Hunter
Psychologists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir have spent years studying what they call "scarcity mindset", and the results are wilder than a Netflix treasure hunting documentary. When people feel like they don't have enough (time, money, resources, matching socks), their brains get hijacked by what researchers call "tunneling."
Scarcity mindset is like wearing those horse blinders, but for your entire life. Your brain becomes so laser-focused on what you lack that it literally stops noticing what you have. You miss opportunities, overlook resources, and make decisions like you're being chased by financial anxiety bears.
But abundance mindset? That's like ripping off those blinders and realizing you've been standing in a room full of treasure while staring intensely at one empty corner.
Your Brain on "Oh Crap, Not Enough"
Here's where it gets both fascinating and mildly terrifying: Princeton researchers found that scarcity thinking actually makes you temporarily dumber. When people were asked to think about financial problems before taking cognitive tests, their IQ scores dropped by an average of 13-14 points.
Thirteen points! That's the difference between "sharp as a tack" and "why did I just put my keys in the refrigerator?"
The mechanism is beautifully brutal: scarcity thinking consumes so much mental bandwidth that there's less brainpower left for everything else. It's like trying to run Netflix while simultaneously backing up your entire photo library and mining cryptocurrency. Everything slows to a painful crawl, and you end up yelling at your computer.
The Abundance Advantage (AKA: Life on Easy Mode)
Christopher Hurst's casual "We ain't too rich" reframe was pure psychological genius, whether he knew it or not. Research shows that people who frame their situations in terms of "what we have" rather than "what we're missing" show:
Better decision-making under pressure (they're not operating from "THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE" mode)
Increased creativity in problem-solving (abundance mindset opens up possibilities instead of slamming them shut)
Lower stress hormones (cortisol takes a chill pill when you're not constantly cataloging your deficits)
Greater resilience when facing actual challenges (versus falling apart when the Wi-Fi goes down)
One Stanford study found that people primed to think about abundance literally saw more opportunities in their environment. Same room, same circumstances. Different lens, completely different reality. It's like switching from black-and-white TV to 4K color, but for your entire life perspective.
The Reframe Magic Trick
Abundance mindset isn't about lying to yourself or pretending you're secretly a millionaire. It's about shifting focus from what's missing to what's actually present and workable.
Instead of "I can't afford the book" (scarcity), Christopher thought "I can access the information I need" (abundance). Instead of "We're poor" (deficit focus), he chose "We ain't too rich" (neutral with a hint of resourcefulness). Same bank account, completely different psychological experience.
UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Alex Korb found that this kind of reframing actually changes brain activity patterns faster than you can say "photocopied treasure map." When you consciously shift perspective from scarcity to sufficiency, different neural networks light up. These are the ones associated with creativity, optimism, and solution-finding rather than the mental equivalent of a smoke detector going off every five minutes.
You've Been Rich All Along
How you frame your situation literally determines what you're able to see and access. Scarcity thinking creates tunnel vision so intense you could miss a winning lottery ticket taped to your forehead. Abundance thinking creates panoramic vision that spots opportunities hiding behind everyday obstacles.
Christopher Hurst couldn't afford a book, but his abundance mindset helped him see photocopying as a perfectly valid path to the same treasure. That perspective shift didn't magically deposit money in his bank account, but it changed everything about his approach to the hunt.
The same is true for anyone reading this newsletter. You ARE rich. Just like Christopher saw photocopying as a path to treasure, you've got resources everywhere: curiosity, resilience, the ability to reframe a Thursday into something worth celebrating. You ain't too rich, maybe, but you're rich enough to hunt for the good stuff. And that's exactly the right kind of wealthy.
TL;DR: Your brain is always hunting for something. The question is whether you're training it to hunt for evidence of what's wrong or proof of what's possible. Science says the treasure hunters who find the most gold are the ones who believe there's gold to be found, even when they "ain't too rich."
🍟 This Week’s Happytizer
Make a reverse résumé, a list of things that make you proud, grateful, or just kinda impressed with yourself.
Think:
That one time you parallel parked perfectly on the first try
The way your plants are somehow still alive
The friend you texted back within 3–5 business days
That time you chose sleep over scrolling
The pasta you didn’t overcook (it’s called al dente, baby)
You’ve done some cool, hard, brave, or silly stuff. Don’t downplay it… celebrate it.
✨ Unsolicited Joy of the Week
Sometimes wisdom comes from treasure hunters. Other times, it steps straight out of a pair of muddy sneakers. In the classic scene from Forrest Gump, the bumper sticker guy points out that Forrest just stepped in dog poop. His response?
“It happens.”
(shrugs in Southern charm)
Life has messes. But sometimes, how we frame them makes all the difference. Because even stepping in it can’t ruin your whole day, unless you decide to carry it with you.
💬 Tell Me...
What’s one thing you do have that you usually forget to appreciate?
Email me back or just shout it out while pretending your Alexa is your therapist. Either way, I’d love to hear it - [email protected]
Share this issue with a friend who needs a reminder that they’re not missing something. They’re just not giving themselves credit for what they already bring to the table.
🫶 Duckin’ Done
Whether you’re rich in friends, patience, dad jokes, or leftover spaghetti, you’ve got something. This week, choose to notice it. Because maybe you ain’t too rich, but you’re definitely not empty.
Until next time,
Jason
❤️ A Lil’ Click, A Lotta Love
Every sponsor click moves me up the pizza food chain: freezer aisle sadness → actual delivery → the holy grail of enjoying stuffed crust this weekend. Your support is literally the cheese in my crust.
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🧐 Behind the Curtain
Science is cool. Here’s where we got our joy-fueled facts:
Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2013). "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much." Times Books.
Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). "Poverty impedes cognitive function." Science, 341(6149), 976-980.
Stephens, N. M., Markus, H. R., & Townsend, S. S. (2007). "Choice as an act of meaning: The case of social class." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 814-830.
And of course, Christopher Hurst — you wise, library-copying legend. Thanks for the reminder.