Who is the author of Wanting?

Luke Burgis is the author of Wanting.

Philosophy

Wanting Book Summary - Wanting Book explained in key points

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Wanting summary

Name: Wanting
Rating: 4.5 (137 reviews)
Author: Luke Burgis

Luke Burgis

The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life

4.5 (137 ratings)

32 mins

Brief summary

'Wanting' by Luke Burgis explores the nature of desire and how it can motivate us towards positive or negative outcomes. The book provides insights into how to harness the power of wanting for self-improvement and spiritual growth.

Topics

Social Psychology The Brain Social Philosophy Alternative Perspectives

Table of Contents

Wanting
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? An exploration of why we want what we want –⁠ and how to want better.

In the mid-twentieth century, French academic René Girard was hired by a US university to teach a number of literature courses whose texts were unfamiliar to him.

While reading through the assigned texts, Girard noticed a curious pattern: characters in the novels he was reading never seemed to desire anything spontaneously. Instead, they always relied on other characters to show them what they should want.

Girard developed this observation into his theory of mimetic desire. The theory states that our desires aren’t intrinsic; rather we learn what to want, just like we learn how to speak a language. These blinks are an accessible introduction to Girard’s theories, as well as a guide to how to take back control of your desires.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how a PR manager used doctors to sell pork;
what happened when Lamborghini met Ferrari; and
why there are scapegoats in American football.

Mimesis dictates everything we desire.

In 2008, the author Luke Burgis and his company, Fit Fuel, were on the verge of a breakthrough. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, had committed to acquiring the company, and the deal would rescue Fit Fuel from mounting debt at a deeply uncertain economic moment.

These circumstances made the author desperate for the agreement to go through. Because of that desperation, he began doing and saying anything he possibly could to get Hsieh on his side. He hid his true opinions about Zappos’ quirky culture, attended happy hours every night, and even tossed out his jeans in favor of ones that looked more like Hsieh’s. Meanwhile, his original desire to start and build his company seemed to have faded away.

What was going on? In short: the author was tangled in a thick web of mimetic desire.

The key message here is: Mimesis dictates everything we desire.

René Girard invented the term mimetic, drawing from the Greek word mimesthai, which means to imitate. So, as you might expect, mimetic desire is the hidden force that causes us to imitate others secretly in all areas of life, including love, friendship, and business.

We always think that our desires are spontaneous, that we just want something, but that’s a delusion. In reality, our desires are always mediated by models –⁠ people or things that cause us to want something.

What’s the problem with that? Well, for one thing, mimetic desire compels sameness. It’s the reason why college freshmen enter university with diverse career choices yet wind up converging around the same few majors by the end of senior year.

In driving us to be the same, mimesis also causes intense rivalry. The more similar we become, the more different we strive to be –⁠ and this can be dangerous. Just look at the biblical story of Cain and Abel, in which both brothers wished to win favor with God. The brothers’ shared desire brought them into conflict, ending with Cain killing Abel.

In the author’s case, Tony Hsieh became a powerful model. In striving to achieve the things that Hsieh seemed to model, the author forgot what drove him to start his own business in the first place. He knew his desires were being driven by external forces, but he didn’t yet understand how. Understanding mimesis is the first step in gaining power over it, and it’s the topic we’ll look at next.

Models are everywhere, and we diminish their power by naming them.

Social media is perhaps the greatest engine of mimesis ever invented. Sites like Facebook and Instagram provide billions of models for us, accessible at all times right in the palms of our hands. These platforms are based on showing us what other people have and want –⁠ and ultimately, dictating what we have and want.

Mimesis exists on scales large and small. One of the first and most important ways you can diminish its power over you is by identifying and shedding light on your models.

Models affect us differently depending on whether they’re inside or outside our social world.

Who are you more jealous of: Jeff Bezos, or a coworker whose job is similar to yours but whose salary is higher?

Your answer is probably the coworker. And that makes complete sense. Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world –⁠ his success lies in a totally different stratosphere from yours, and you know you have little chance of competing with him.

Mimesis can be a positive cycle, as long as one person eventually ends it.

Ferruccio Lamborghini began his career as a highly successful tractor manufacturer in Italy. One day, he decided to purchase a luxury vehicle with his hard-earned money –⁠ specifically, a Ferrari.

Lamborghini liked to race the Ferrari, but he kept having issues with the clutch. The problem persisted even after he took the car to the Ferrari factory multiple times for repairs. Eventually, he decided to ask his own mechanics to take a look –⁠ and they found that the luxury Ferrari was using the exact same clutch as Lamborghini’s cheap tractors.

Mimetic crises end only when a scapegoat is named and punished.

When a plague or other natural disaster occurred in ancient Greece, the people responded with a gruesome ritual.

First, they selected a pharmakos, someone considered a poison to the community – usually a slave, criminal, or person with physical deformities. This person was blamed for the crisis and then publicly tortured and humiliated, sometimes for days at a time. Finally, crowds of people gathered to expel or kill him.

Mimetic systems bind us to artificial, unfulfilling goals.

When Sébastien Bras was a child, the kitchen was his playground. His childhood bedroom sat directly above his father’s restaurant, Le Suquet, which was –⁠ and is –⁠ situated on a remote, idyllic hillside in rural France. When Sébastien was growing up, Le Suquet had two Michelin stars, and Sébastien was hell-bent on helping it get its third.

Le Suquet was awarded that third Michelin star in 1999. Ten years later, Sébastien took over the restaurant from his father. But soon after, Sébastien began to feel dissatisfied. The Michelin system was no longer driving him to succeed. Instead, it was creating extreme pressure for him to conform to a set of specific rules and expectations. That’s because it was a mimetic system, sustained by mimetic desire.

Business leaders must consider how they’re shaping people’s desires.

For thousands of years, Senagalese people and other West Africans have been growing and cultivating a type of grain called fonio. But after Senegal’s colonization, when people were forced to displace fonio crops in favor of peanuts, Senegalese people became convinced that their native crops were basically worthless.

A company called Yolélé Foods, co-founded by a Senegalese chef called Pierre Thiam, is trying to change all of that. Yolélé is working to import and introduce fonio and other Senegalese and West African ingredients to the US. This, Thiam hopes, will boost West Africa’s image in the US –⁠ which will in turn boost its image in the minds of West Africans.

Empathy disrupts mimetic crises and kickstarts positive cycles of desire.

Picture three artists standing side by side. Each of them is painting the same scene –⁠ but that’s where the similarities end.

The first artist might be practicing her landscape painting skills so she can win a competition. The second one might be creating a memento for his husband because they had their first date at this spot. And the third one might be trying to translate his imaginative vision of the landscape into reality.

We must shift away from engineering desire and toward transforming desire.

American culture is growing more and more mimetic. Tensions are rising while innovation stagnates. Instead of creating new and interesting art, we rehash the same old material with sequels and remakes. We monetize YouTube videos of people reacting to other YouTube videos instead of incentivizing people to build tools that will better serve humanity.

Much of this is a result of the big four tech companies –⁠ Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple –⁠ engineering our desires. By mining and using our data, these companies are creating a system that tells us what to want. It’s important for us not to let them do that. Instead, we must transform desire by changing our relationships to each other and to ourselves.

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What is Wanting about?

Wanting (2021) provides a riveting, philosophical answer to the question Why do we want the things we want? Drawing on theories originally developed by the celebrated polymath René Girard, it reveals an uncomfortable truth: that our desires are all ultimately a product of other people’s desires. The point isn’t to eliminate them,⁠ but rather to choose, carefully and consciously, which ones we should actually strive for.

Wanting Review

Wanting (2021) explores the complexities of desire, delving into the various factors that drive human motivation. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Through intriguing case studies and psychological insights, it offers a fresh perspective on the forces that shape our desires and decision-making.
By examining the tension between ambition and fulfillment, the book provides a thought-provoking exploration of the paradoxes inherent in our pursuit of what we want.
With its well-researched analysis and thought-provoking contemplations, it offers a compelling and intellectual journey into the human psyche, ensuring that it is never boring.

Who should read Wanting?

Lovers of philosophy, psychology, and literature
Dedicated self-improvers
Young entrepreneurs and business leaders

About the Author

Luke Burgis is an entrepreneur who founded and ran four start-up companies before deciding to course-correct and travel to Italy to study philosophy, theology, and literature. He is now the Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Director of Programs at the Catholic University of America.

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