Wanting: Mimetic Desire: How to Avoid Chasing Things You Don't Truly Want

by Luke Burgis

Desire is not a function of data. It’s a function of other people’s desires.

“The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.”3

the Lean Startup technique is a model of entrepreneurship fundamentally based on immanent desire. It’s politics by polling, in which a candidate does whatever the polls tell them to do. This is not leading, but following. Sometimes it’s plain cowardice.

Part of the joy of being an entrepreneur is the ability to lead: to take desires someplace new.

I believe the purpose of work is not merely to make more but to become more.