Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
Our Needs And Wants
Like all animals, we know what we need. Nourishment, safety, sex. Our needs are limited. Instinctual. Natural. And in today’s world – almost guaranteed.
Our wants, on the other hand, are more complex. Whimsical. Time-consuming. We create them by choosing from a menu of possibilities that changes along with our environment. And boy, has our environment changed. For millennia, we foraged in the wild. Today, we’re being suffocated by abundance.
This abundance makes it fair to expect individual desires within a modern tribe to be totally random. Unique, even.
But they aren’t.
21
150 reads
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Everywhere you look, you’ll see groups of people who want the same things. The newest iPhone. Gucci handbags. Yeezys. Expensive degrees. And lately – pixelated JPEGS.
Like a bunch of neighbouring metronomes that spontaneously synchronize, our desires coalesce with those of our social group. We desire what other humans desire. In other words, our desires are mimetic.
19
129 reads
The Reasons For Our Mimetic Desires
Firstly, our wants are confusing. It is impossible to know what to want when there’s an endless, ever-changing list to pick from, with no reference point provided by evolution.
Secondly, we are wired to play status games. High status had evolutionary advantages in our time as hunter-gatherers – it gave us easier access to resources for survival and mates for reproduction.
Thirdly, we’re signalling machines. By imitating the desires of a person we look up to, we signal to others that we possess some of the qualities of that person
18
106 reads
The Reason For Living
Mimetic Desire is the reason we become like the people we spend time with or look up to. They shape what we choose to want, often unconsciously.
Since our time is limited, it pays to pay attention to our desires. Escaping them is a futile endeavour for those of us that aren’t monks. Reordering them is more realistic.
So find desires that stand the test of time. Those that don’t result in zero-sum games where you compete with your peers. Those that aren’t in conflict with other desires. Find desires that can create a journey you will enjoy, for the destination is never guaranteed.
20
112 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
CURATOR'S NOTE
Filter your desires
“
Johnny Evans's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about psychology with this collection
Navigating and enjoying the thrill of horror and scare experiences
Historical knowledge of Halloween and its origins
Understanding and appreciating Halloween traditions worldwide
Related collections
Similar ideas
8 ideas
8 Ways to Build a Life You Love
entrepreneur.com
1 idea
Indicators of Human Well-Being
declutterize279528759.wordpress.com
8 ideas
Stoicism explained in exactly 500 words
complexitycondensed.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates