Why We Want What Other People Have

Making choices based on the desires of others is a part of human nature. But there are ways to counteract the force.

Luke Burgis
10 min readMay 20, 2021

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Illustration credit: Liana Finck

Nearly everyone (unconsciously) assumes there’s a straight line between them and the things they want.

I wake up one day and “suddenly” decide that I want to run a marathon. (Amazingly

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Luke Burgis

Author of “WANTING: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life.” Find more at read.lukeburgis.com