time. The way Mr Mullainathan feels about his professional obligations mirrors the way Shawn felt about his financial liabilities. He has been known to miss deadlines, just as Shawn missed bill payments. Mr Mullainathan has double-booked meetings, promising time he has already committed; Shawn similarly bounced checks. Both were too busy putting out fires to prevent them from flaring up, and both fell prey to fresh temptations. Shawn was seduced by a leather jacket at an unbeatable price; Mr Mullainathan accepted an unmissable invitation to write about people like Shawn.

There is a distinctive psychology of scarcity, argues Mr Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, a psychologist at Princeton University. People’s minds work differently when they feel they lack something. And it does not greatly matter what that something is. Anyonevery close to the Globe and slightly older. Neither theater remains standing. The Globe was constructed in 1990 from 1000 oak trees all crafted by hand with no power tools or anything that was unavailable in the 1500s. On the stage while I was on my tour was a German play company rehearsing a modern play. I think that even if I could have understood what they were saying I still would have been confused by all the oddness that was going on on stage.

From the Globe I went to the 'London Bridge and London Tombs Experience' which was very much not my thing. It was a very tacky 'horror' experience. It was not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a tour through the history