Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

The only thing we can try to do is to influence the direction scientists are taking. But since we might soon be able to engineer our desires too, the real question facing us is not ‘What do we want to become?’, but ‘What do we want to want?’ Those who are not spooked by this question probably haven’t given it enough thought.

Most of us are struggling more and more with the whole concept of distinguishing the difference between want and need. We don't need near as much as we think we do. We didn't know we needed an iPhone until Steve Jobs convinced us we did. A few years ago I started making myself wait 24 hours before buying anything (other than food) and was amazed how many times I ended up not purchasing what I thought I wanted the day before.