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

Luke Burgis' book (and further reading recommendations through other channels) have set me down on a rare path to understanding the functioning of man and human kind, society, social dynamics - what Luke writes is instinctually sound and familiar, and helps clarify the picture.Mimetic desire is a beneficial concept to learn for various reasons, and starting with Luke's book gives a nice soft landing into the topic.The book is written well and stays to the point, no useless bloat to get the page count up - which is rare these days, when it comes to those kinds of topics.Thanks for writing it, I'm sure there are many among us who are waiting for more :)

Thanks to this book I meditated on what I desire and why I desire something.I recommend it to who is interested in knowing themselves and to think about their wishes.

After reading this book you will see mimesis everywhere. I came to know of this book from one of the podcasts of Saurabh Mukherjea. I have always been interested in the concept of _mimesis_ ever since I heard about it, in lectures of Peter Thiel. The idea that Peter was able to make contrarian bets by employing this primordial concept and in the process make a ton of cash fascinated me . It's funny however that Peter made his greatest bet on facebook, arguably the most memetic company of modern times. As my interest piqued, however, I wasn't sure if I fully understood the concept and René Girard's book were beyond my pay grade and attention span. So if you are on the same boat, hop on. By the end of this book you would have clear understanding of the idea of mimesis. However, as an Indian I feel this idea is a bit of a stretch of the western philosophy and theology. Rene Girad was obviously inspired by the "scapegoating" of Jesus Christ and his subsequent crucification. They also have plenty of example pulled from Roman and Greek mythology like stoning of a blind man.But when it comes to India these concepts may be a bit too binary in nature. Also the author has no world view and at one point (in reference to a dating app) quotes that India is the most dangerous place for women. How silly is that ?I still give this book 4 starts for the first 100 pages but then he starts name dropping the usual suspects Daniel Kahneman, Yuval Noah Harari, James Clear et el. Further he gets political with the current meme of cancel culture and apparent lack of progress in the West. This dystopian view is very west centric, as in India and many Asian countries we look forward to the future.I do recommend this book for the uninitiated as you would be able to appreciate some of the mimetic traps like competition amongst peers. For instance we fight "more" when we are "similar" unlike the Karl Maxian view that differences creates conflict. I guess India and Pakistan are at logger heads because our cultures are very similar while we couldn't care less about Ukraine or even Afghanistan. Also the concept of ROLE MODELS in our life is important although not necessary. We are less bothered about our role models acquiring humongous wealth but can't stand a friend or colleague getting ahead even on a trivial matter.Perhaps the greatest lesson of all this is to let go of the thin goals and focus on the thick goals. Also the author has a dog like me so i like him :)

The best thing about this is book that i can read it more than one time and still find new insights hidden somewhere within it!!The author did good job communicating Rene Girard’s ideas.

Interesting interpretation of the ideas of René Girard.