Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
“Super book, very easy to read. One of the most useful mental models that I have.”
Why it is worth your time
Wanting is Luke Burgis's 2021 introduction to mimetic desire, the theory developed by the French thinker Rene Girard. Burgis, an entrepreneur who went on to teach business at the Catholic University of America, argues that we rarely want things on our own. We copy the wants of the models around us, and that copying produces rivalry and herd behavior. The later chapters turn practical: how to spot your models, step out of cycles of imitation and choose what he calls thick desires. Chamath offered it as his pick on the December 2021 year-end episode and described it as one of his most useful mental models. That fits his habit of reading markets and crowds as imitation problems. It suits readers who want Girard's idea without the academic texts. The caveat is that it is partly a self-help book; The Times called it part philosophical tract, part self-help guide.
