People are willing to work free, and they are willing to work for a reasonable wage; but offer them just a small payment and they will walk away.

The problem is that people basically dangle debt in front of us. And the cost for the poor of course is much higher than for the wealthy.

But because human being tend to focus on short-term benefits and our own immediate needs, such tragedies of the commons occur frequently .

Do you know how much money you would save if you changed your light bulb to compact florescent light bubs? How much would you save if you decreased your temperature of your house in the winter by one degree, or increase it by one degree? We just don't know these numbers, but I think displays could make it a memorable change in terms of attention, and also help us translate it in terms of concrete ways on what you can get.

There's something about [cyclically] doing something over and over and over that seems to be particularly demotivating.

Kids don't care what party they have, right? They want cake and they want to run around. Nothing else matters. But in this escalation, all the kids want parties like their friends. So, if all the friends have an amazing, expensive party, they all want the same thing. If we all got to scale down as a coordinated effort, all the kids would have been just as happy.

The things that motivate us are to help other people, to feel that we're useful, to feel that we're getting better, to feel that we are kind of living to our potential, to get a sense of meaning. All of those things are positive.