Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Luke Burgis
Luke Burgis

36K Followers

Home

Books

About

Featured Book

Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life

WANTING is a book about desire—why people want what they want, and why you want what you want. Whether it comes to romance, business, politics, or even fashion, by the time you’re done reading you will have seen something in the world, and in your own life, that you can never unsee. You get to choose what to do about it.

2021

·
Luke Burgis
Luke Burgis

Stories

Pinned

How Social Media Has Made Us All Rivals

It’s a Chamber of Desire from which there is no escape — In the isolation of the pandemic, our need for social media has been especially acute. It helps us to make sense of who we are. We didn’t know what to desire. So we turned to other people, on our phones, to tell us: Watch Tiger King, drink negronis, adopt dogs…

Social Media

8 min read

How Social Media Has Made Us All Rivals
How Social Media Has Made Us All Rivals
Social Media

8 min read


6 days ago

The Anti-Mimetic Digest

Edition #3—New things I’m seeing, reading, doing, contemplating, or wanting. — The Anti-Mimetic Digest is a breakdown of what I’m seeing, reading, doing, contemplating, or wanting—a new feature published once/month for subscribers. 👀 What I’m Seeing Claire and I are in the middle of an intra-DC house move right now, so things are chaotic. I’ve been working 12–14 hour days — a nice combination of…

Streaming

5 min read

The Anti-Mimetic Digest
The Anti-Mimetic Digest
Streaming

5 min read


May 23

How to Craft an Anti-Mimetic Career

Practical Tactics for Discerning a Better Way Forward — This is a guest post on by Simone Stolzoff, a former design lead at the global innovation firm IDEO whom I had the pleasure to speak with and get to know in 2021. I’m grateful to present this guest post from him today — an Anti-Mimetic original tied to thick…

Career Advice

8 min read

How to Craft an Anti-Mimetic Career
How to Craft an Anti-Mimetic Career
Career Advice

8 min read


May 18

The “Versus Everyone” Paradox

Detroit Vs. Everyone, and the problem of the One and the Many “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one. —Charles MacKay I’m from Michigan, so the “Detroit Vs…

Self

12 min read

The “Versus Everyone” Paradox
The “Versus Everyone” Paradox
Self

12 min read


May 13

My Life-Saving Lesson from a Hitman in Vegas

Disruptive Empathy can break in and change the vector of even the most dangerous cycles. — The story below is an adapted excerpt from my book Wanting, which has now been translated into nearly 20 languages. Dave Romero had a thin ponytail and a sallow face. His narrow eyes and deep crow’s feet gave the impression that he could read your soul. He walked proudly, with…

Books

8 min read

My Life-Saving Lesson from a Hitman in Vegas
My Life-Saving Lesson from a Hitman in Vegas
Books

8 min read


Apr 21

Truth Is Revealed In Taboos

What the weird new fascination with cannibalism reveals about what everyone really wants. — Bones and All, a romantic horror about two cannibalistic teenage lovers on a road trip across 1980s America, received a ten-minute standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival last summer. It is the latest in a growing trend of non-fantastical films and series juxtaposing cannibalism alongside themes…

Film

4 min read

Truth Is Revealed In Taboos
Truth Is Revealed In Taboos
Film

4 min read


Apr 17

The Three City Problem: Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley

How the Relationship Between Reason, Faith, and Technology Must be Disambiguated to Solve Our Most Pressing Problems — For more context, please see the introductory article that I wrote about this framework in WIRED Magazine last summer. It’s certainly not necessary, though, because I’m going to lay out the core idea out again here — and add to it. The Foundational Idea The third century Christian thinker Tertullian asked, “What has…

Philosophy

12 min read

The Three City Problem: Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley
The Three City Problem: Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley
Philosophy

12 min read


Apr 7

The Erosion of Free Will: Why Society’s Loss of Belief in Freedom is Dangerous

Pay attention to how people are talking about freedom. It’s a leading indicator of cultural (and economic) trends. — Everyone is fighting for “rights” and the freedom to make various choices, yet few people seem to believe that we actually have any. All ideas are in some sense correlated. In other words, your idea about one thing — especially something as fundamental as whether creation is good, or whether…

Freedom

9 min read

The Erosion of Free Will: Why Society’s Loss of Belief in Freedom is Dangerous
The Erosion of Free Will: Why Society’s Loss of Belief in Freedom is Dangerous
Freedom

9 min read


Apr 3

Tuning In to a Different Rhythm

The tick-tock metronome of content and news drowns out the real signals of life. — I’ve been feeling down this past week. It might be because I’ve been listening to too much discordant music: the uncoordinated, nonrhythmic pulse of content, which is less like a pulse — which indicates life — and more like clashing cymbals (symbols!). An infinite array of them. I’m writing this…

Time

6 min read

Tuning In to a Different Rhythm
Tuning In to a Different Rhythm
Time

6 min read


Mar 18

What It Will Sound Like When the Content Bubble Bursts

It’s not what we even wildly imagine. — What will it sound like when the content bubble bursts? The Silicon Valley Bank collapse has only led to a louder and louder cacophony of voices, and drawn attention away from the spiritual emptiness and moral confusion of most people in the business world — especially the venture capitalists who…

Content

6 min read

What It Will Sound Like When the Content Bubble Bursts
What It Will Sound Like When the Content Bubble Bursts
Content

6 min read

Luke Burgis

Luke Burgis

36K Followers

Book Author

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

Following
  • Ayodeji Awosika

    Ayodeji Awosika

  • Scott Galloway

    Scott Galloway

  • Tim Denning

    Tim Denning

  • StartUp Health

    StartUp Health

  • Douglas Rushkoff

    Douglas Rushkoff

See all (114)

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech

Teams