Zuckerberg’s early backer Peter Thiel was a student of the philosopher René Girard, who came up with the concept of “mimetic desire” and invoked it to explain Facebook’s essence. “Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and who turns to others in order to make up his mind,” Girard wrote. “We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.” In other words, monkey see, monkey do.
