
Live for your own reasons
Description
Book Introduction
“Stop wanting to be the same as everyone else!” There is no tool more powerful than finding out "why" you want something. The most complete deciphering of the mechanisms of human desire. Amazon Bestseller #1 [Financial Times] Business Book of the Month Recommended by Jonathan Haidt, Adam Grant, and Ryan Holiday Where do you think you stand in life right now? Are you perhaps standing at the back of the line, convinced that what you want will be at the end? Bestselling author and American entrepreneur Luke Burgess emphasizes that to avoid regretting, "Is this really what I wanted?" at some point in life, you need to stop in front of the same desires as others and ask yourself, "Why did I want that?" Because your desires may simply be a reflection of someone else's desires. In this book, Live for Your Own Reasons, Luke Burgess vividly shows the power and appearance of the 'mimetic desire' that surrounds us, which influences all human psychology and behavior but is not easily visible on the surface, based on the theory of mimesis by French philosopher and Stanford University professor René Girard. It also explains in a simple and clear way how and why humans imitate each other. Burgiss, who emphasizes that there is no intellectual tool more powerful than understanding 'why you want something,' helps us accurately understand the mechanism of human desire through reflections that cross fields such as science, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, and guides us on how to find new opportunities in our daily lives and businesses based on this. The book immediately became a bestseller on Amazon and the New York Times, and was praised as the most complete decipherment of human desire by global CEOs and world-renowned scholars. It was also selected as an Amazon Editor's Pick Nonfiction, the Financial Times Business Book of the Month, and a must-read for the Next Big Idea Club, run by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and others. If you are curious about yourself, others, and the driving force behind the world, I urge you to open this book right now. When I stand on my own merits and look at the world through the lens of my desires, a world and opportunities like never before will unfold before me. |
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index
A letter to readers
Prologue: What Did I Want?
Introduction: Peter Thiel's The Mechanism of Desire
Part 1 What Moves the Human Heart
Chapter 1 Is This Really What I Want?
Babies' Imitative Abilities I Why I Ordered a Martini I Bernays's Strategy, the Father of Public Relations I How to Get Women to Smoke I When You Get Caught in the Imitation Game I The Psychology of the Stock Market
Chapter 2 Characteristics of the models we follow
Two Models I Models Living in Celebristan I Models Living in Preshmanistan I Three Distortions of Reality I Mirror Imitation I Engine of Social Media
Chapter 3 The Two Cycles of Desire
Lamborghini vs. Ferrari I Lamborghini's Leap I Lessons from Bullfighting I Meme and Imitation Theory I Flywheel Effect I Creative Cycles I Destructive Cycles I Consequences of Crash I After Holacracy I Are There Priorities? I The Collapse of Desire
Chapter 4 What Does Imitation Sacrifice?
Imitative Desire and Violence I The Rise of the Scapegoat I “That Guy Did It” I The Role of the Scapegoat I The Path of Least Resistance I Why Do They Dance? I Cast the First Stone I The Scapegoat Mechanism Around Us I The Triumph of the Scapegoat I Signs of Contradiction
Part 2 Live for Your Own Reasons
Chapter 5 Where Did That Goal Come From?
The Shadow of Goal Setting I The Imitation System Surrounding You I The Observer and the Chef I The Michelin Guide System I A New Way of Thinking
Chapter 6 What Satisfies You
Among the things you have done so far I Sympathy and Empathy I From shallow desires to thick desires I Three desires I The story that tells who I am I Finding my motivational pattern
Chapter 7: How Great Leaders Lead with Desire
Intrinsic Desire I Transcendent Leadership I Skill 1: Shifting the Center of Gravity I Skill 2: Speed of Truth I Skill 3: Discernment I Skill 4: Sitting Quietly in a Room I Skill 5: Filtering Feedback
Chapter 8 What Do You Want Now?
Reasons for Decline I Manipulative Desire I Transformational Desire I Where Desire is Determined I New Alternatives I Choose the Overwhelming One
Prologue: What Did I Want?
Introduction: Peter Thiel's The Mechanism of Desire
Part 1 What Moves the Human Heart
Chapter 1 Is This Really What I Want?
Babies' Imitative Abilities I Why I Ordered a Martini I Bernays's Strategy, the Father of Public Relations I How to Get Women to Smoke I When You Get Caught in the Imitation Game I The Psychology of the Stock Market
Chapter 2 Characteristics of the models we follow
Two Models I Models Living in Celebristan I Models Living in Preshmanistan I Three Distortions of Reality I Mirror Imitation I Engine of Social Media
Chapter 3 The Two Cycles of Desire
Lamborghini vs. Ferrari I Lamborghini's Leap I Lessons from Bullfighting I Meme and Imitation Theory I Flywheel Effect I Creative Cycles I Destructive Cycles I Consequences of Crash I After Holacracy I Are There Priorities? I The Collapse of Desire
Chapter 4 What Does Imitation Sacrifice?
Imitative Desire and Violence I The Rise of the Scapegoat I “That Guy Did It” I The Role of the Scapegoat I The Path of Least Resistance I Why Do They Dance? I Cast the First Stone I The Scapegoat Mechanism Around Us I The Triumph of the Scapegoat I Signs of Contradiction
Part 2 Live for Your Own Reasons
Chapter 5 Where Did That Goal Come From?
The Shadow of Goal Setting I The Imitation System Surrounding You I The Observer and the Chef I The Michelin Guide System I A New Way of Thinking
Chapter 6 What Satisfies You
Among the things you have done so far I Sympathy and Empathy I From shallow desires to thick desires I Three desires I The story that tells who I am I Finding my motivational pattern
Chapter 7: How Great Leaders Lead with Desire
Intrinsic Desire I Transcendent Leadership I Skill 1: Shifting the Center of Gravity I Skill 2: Speed of Truth I Skill 3: Discernment I Skill 4: Sitting Quietly in a Room I Skill 5: Filtering Feedback
Chapter 8 What Do You Want Now?
Reasons for Decline I Manipulative Desire I Transformational Desire I Where Desire is Determined I New Alternatives I Choose the Overwhelming One
Detailed image

Into the book
To test this idea, Melchoff performed the act in front of 18-month-old babies.
In the experiment, an adult pretended to remove a dumbbell-shaped toy from a round tube.
He struggled to pull the toy away, but his hand slipped off one end.
I tried again, this time my hand slipped from the other side.
His intentions were clear.
He wanted to take the toy away.
But it clearly failed.
After he finished the action, the researcher showed the object to the babies and observed their behavior.
The babies picked up the dumbbells and immediately put them back down, doing so 40 out of 50 trials.
Babies did not imitate what adults did, but rather what they thought adults wanted to do.
They read behind the surface behavior.
--- p.47
Several statistics should have alerted Tesla stock investors that something more than information is driving the stock price.
On February 4th, the second day of the rally, Tesla stock traded at a record high of over $55 billion.
On the same day, when people started searching Google with “Should I,” the question was autocompleted to “Should I buy Tesla stock?”
Many people try to decide whether or not to buy a Tesla after Googling whether other people want to buy one.
I think this is not just information, but a desire to imitate.
Desire is not a function of statistics, but a function of the desires of others.
What stock market analysts call "mass psychosis" is far from mental illness.
This is the phenomenon of mimetic desire that Girard discovered over 50 years ago.
--- p.67
Soros' definition of reflexivity can be reconstructed as follows:
In situations where desirable participants interact with each other, a two-way interaction occurs between the participants' needs.
The situation is like having another person jumping right next to you on a trampoline.
No one can jump on a trampoline alone without affecting others.
However, people believe that they want something for their own voluntary and rational reasons (romantic lies), not because they are influenced by those around them.
This makes it look different from reality.
From 2003 to 2016, investors poured over $700 million into Elizabeth Holmes, the aforementioned Steve Jobs imitator.
His company, Theranos, is valued at over $10 billion.
Thanks to the investment money, Holmes built a swanky headquarters in Silicon Valley, hired talented former Apple employees, and secured a lucrative contract with Walgreens to fund her marketing campaign.
New investors who saw all this rushed to put in their money.
--- p.92~93
I'm always frustrated when students come to me and tell me that they've been preached to for years by their aunts, uncles, friends, or career consultants about how accounting is the path to a stable career (I'm using accounting as an example, but this applies to any major).
Even students with no aptitude for accounting eventually begin to regret the path they took.
But this is not their fault.
People with accounting-related jobs just serve as great role models.
Their lives seemed peaceful and financially stable.
I asked.
“Is accounting really what you want to do?” the students answer.
“Well… I don’t know.
“Maybe,” they say, as if they were in a foreign buffet filled with hundreds of dishes they have never tried before.
The first thing they'll do is line up behind someone who looks like they know what they're doing.
We will all do that.
--- p.140~141
This is why we are drawn to certain types of projects (team versus individual, goal-oriented versus ideological) or activities (sports, art, theater, fitness-style exercise) but not others.
There are certain patterns to motivation.
If you can specify what it is, you've taken an important step toward understanding your deepest desires.
The best way to discover those patterns is to talk about them.
This is the first question I ask when interviewing employees these days.
“Tell me about something you’ve done well in your life and what kind of fulfillment it has given you.” This question helps you see into the essence of a person.
I have witnessed how this simple question transforms interactions between individuals and communities.
--- p.237
There is nothing more dangerous than the similarity of desires.
Imagine a robot's similarity to human desires being violated.
When desires are focused on the same object, conflict is inevitable.
The real danger with AI isn't that someday robots will be smarter than us, but that someday robots will want the same things we want: jobs, partners, dreams.
The manipulative desires of robots and humans raise serious questions about the future of humanity.
Historian Yuval Harari wrote these words at the end of his book Sapiens:
“But since we too can soon manipulate our own desires, the real question we face is not ‘What do we want to be?’ but ‘What do we hope to want?’
Anyone who isn't intimidated by this question probably hasn't thought about it enough.”
In the experiment, an adult pretended to remove a dumbbell-shaped toy from a round tube.
He struggled to pull the toy away, but his hand slipped off one end.
I tried again, this time my hand slipped from the other side.
His intentions were clear.
He wanted to take the toy away.
But it clearly failed.
After he finished the action, the researcher showed the object to the babies and observed their behavior.
The babies picked up the dumbbells and immediately put them back down, doing so 40 out of 50 trials.
Babies did not imitate what adults did, but rather what they thought adults wanted to do.
They read behind the surface behavior.
--- p.47
Several statistics should have alerted Tesla stock investors that something more than information is driving the stock price.
On February 4th, the second day of the rally, Tesla stock traded at a record high of over $55 billion.
On the same day, when people started searching Google with “Should I,” the question was autocompleted to “Should I buy Tesla stock?”
Many people try to decide whether or not to buy a Tesla after Googling whether other people want to buy one.
I think this is not just information, but a desire to imitate.
Desire is not a function of statistics, but a function of the desires of others.
What stock market analysts call "mass psychosis" is far from mental illness.
This is the phenomenon of mimetic desire that Girard discovered over 50 years ago.
--- p.67
Soros' definition of reflexivity can be reconstructed as follows:
In situations where desirable participants interact with each other, a two-way interaction occurs between the participants' needs.
The situation is like having another person jumping right next to you on a trampoline.
No one can jump on a trampoline alone without affecting others.
However, people believe that they want something for their own voluntary and rational reasons (romantic lies), not because they are influenced by those around them.
This makes it look different from reality.
From 2003 to 2016, investors poured over $700 million into Elizabeth Holmes, the aforementioned Steve Jobs imitator.
His company, Theranos, is valued at over $10 billion.
Thanks to the investment money, Holmes built a swanky headquarters in Silicon Valley, hired talented former Apple employees, and secured a lucrative contract with Walgreens to fund her marketing campaign.
New investors who saw all this rushed to put in their money.
--- p.92~93
I'm always frustrated when students come to me and tell me that they've been preached to for years by their aunts, uncles, friends, or career consultants about how accounting is the path to a stable career (I'm using accounting as an example, but this applies to any major).
Even students with no aptitude for accounting eventually begin to regret the path they took.
But this is not their fault.
People with accounting-related jobs just serve as great role models.
Their lives seemed peaceful and financially stable.
I asked.
“Is accounting really what you want to do?” the students answer.
“Well… I don’t know.
“Maybe,” they say, as if they were in a foreign buffet filled with hundreds of dishes they have never tried before.
The first thing they'll do is line up behind someone who looks like they know what they're doing.
We will all do that.
--- p.140~141
This is why we are drawn to certain types of projects (team versus individual, goal-oriented versus ideological) or activities (sports, art, theater, fitness-style exercise) but not others.
There are certain patterns to motivation.
If you can specify what it is, you've taken an important step toward understanding your deepest desires.
The best way to discover those patterns is to talk about them.
This is the first question I ask when interviewing employees these days.
“Tell me about something you’ve done well in your life and what kind of fulfillment it has given you.” This question helps you see into the essence of a person.
I have witnessed how this simple question transforms interactions between individuals and communities.
--- p.237
There is nothing more dangerous than the similarity of desires.
Imagine a robot's similarity to human desires being violated.
When desires are focused on the same object, conflict is inevitable.
The real danger with AI isn't that someday robots will be smarter than us, but that someday robots will want the same things we want: jobs, partners, dreams.
The manipulative desires of robots and humans raise serious questions about the future of humanity.
Historian Yuval Harari wrote these words at the end of his book Sapiens:
“But since we too can soon manipulate our own desires, the real question we face is not ‘What do we want to be?’ but ‘What do we hope to want?’
Anyone who isn't intimidated by this question probably hasn't thought about it enough.”
--- p.274
Publisher's Review
Do you really want it
There is no tool more powerful than finding out "why" you want something.
We often believe that there is a straight line between ourselves and what we desire.
But that line is curved, and in between are people or things that are motivated to want it.
That is, our desires are influenced by models, and we live in imitative relationships with others.
In this way, 'imitation' is a powerful human instinct, not a concept that must be escaped or overcome.
But the life of someone who recognizes this and the life of someone who doesn't are completely different.
In the latter case, it is too easy to get stuck in a cycle of conflict and competition without ever finding what you want.
To this end, this book presents the imitative instinct, which influences all human psychology and behavior but is not readily apparent, based on specific scientific theories and experiments. This helps readers understand the true nature of the desires that have been controlling their lives and confront their own imitation of others' desires.
It also provides vivid examples of how this power of desire operates in our daily lives and businesses, helping us understand the cycle of desire, which can be either negative or positive depending on a shift in perception.
Who are we following?
Steve Jobs and Robert Friendly: The Desire Behind the Relationship Between Lamborghini and Ferrari
Ask yourself honestly:
Who do you feel more jealous of? Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man? Or a colleague who works in the same office as you but has a higher position and higher salary? It's probably the latter.
People don't think about competing with people who are far enough away from us in terms of time, space, money, or status.
But we engage in an unspoken competition with those who live in close contact with us.
The author distinguishes between Celebristan and Freshmanistan, and provides specific examples of how the Freshmanistan models serve as our direct competitors and imitators.
You will encounter the principles of desire that exist in exciting relationships, such as those of Steve Jobs' classmate Robert Friendly, who became the model for Steve Jobs, who surprised people with his eccentric behavior; Lamborghini, which went from being a tractor manufacturer to creating the world's most beloved supercar; and Ferrari, which ignited his desire.
Stop wanting to be the same as everyone else!
The Path to Absolute Happiness and Satisfaction
World-renowned chef Sebas Thienbras is asking the Michelin Guide, which has awarded his restaurant Le Suquet three stars for 19 consecutive years, to remove his restaurant.
Why did he make this decision?
Sebastien Bras set a goal of three Michelin stars and pursued it with all his life.
Then one day, he realized that pursuing that goal was killing him.
In order to satisfy the Michelin Guide, he was unable to develop the dishes he wanted and had to live under the stress and pressure of losing a star at any time.
In this way, this book questions the very setting and planning of goals that no one questions, even if they seem so obvious, and urges us to explore where those goals originated in the first place.
Because we need to check whether it is not coming from the imitation system that surrounds us.
The author divides desires into "shallow desires" that are imitative and contagious, and "thick desires" that are created deep beneath the surface and do not change easily. He explains that by discovering and developing thick desires, one can protect oneself from cheap imitative desires and ultimately live a life that gives one true satisfaction.
He emphasizes finding your own motivational patterns as an effective approach to discovering this thick desire, and introduces each of the 27 motivational items organized into themes in the main text and appendix of this book.
How Great Leaders Drive Desire
Highly recommended by global CEOs and world-renowned scholars
Unrivaled Insights for Business Success
The book begins with a one-on-one meeting between author Luke Burgess and world-renowned investor Peter Thiel.
“Imitation breeds competition, which breeds greater imitation.
Peter Thiel, who has said, “Competition is for losers,” emphasizes that following existing best practices will only lead to falling into the trap of competition, and that to become a successful entrepreneur, you must follow your own new values in places no one has thought of.
As Peter Thiel himself has revealed, his philosophy is influenced by the imitation theory of René Girard, of whom he was a student at Stanford University.
Thiel used his knowledge of imitation theory to manage his business and life.
As competition within the company intensified, each employee was given independent work to prevent them from competing with each other.
Additionally, the company merged to form a new company, PayPal, in a situation where an all-out war was unfolding with its competitor, Elon Musk's X.com.
Because we knew that when we model ourselves after each other, we would compete until the very end.
He also took the desire to imitate into account when making investment decisions.
Thiel immediately recognized the potential of Facebook, built on the desire to imitate, and became its first outside investor, saying he was “betting on mimesis.”
As a result, he invested $500,000 and made over $1 billion.
Peter Thiel belongs to the category of 'transcendent leaders' highlighted in this book.
Burgis summarizes the characteristics of transcendent leaders and their companies into five categories: shifting the center of gravity toward transcendent goals, increasing the speed of truth delivery, discernment that transcends rational analysis, training in silence, and training in filtering and listening to feedback. He then suggests how leaders can lead and control their desires.
The most complete deciphering of the mechanisms of human desire.
“Everyone with a desire needs this book.”
This book, which addresses desire through reflections that cross fields such as science, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, received rave reviews from the press and readers immediately after its publication.
The book also received praise from CEOs of global companies and world-renowned scholars. Professor Jonathan Haidt of New York University's Stern School of Business recommended it as "a must-read for leaders who lead people and organizations," and Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland emphasized that "anyone with a desire, that is, everyone, should read this book."
Wharton School professor Adam Grant assured readers that they would be instantly captivated by the author's logic, and media strategist and bestselling author Ryan Holiday named it one of his favorite books.
It was also selected as an Amazon Editor's Pick Nonfiction, the Financial Times Business Book of the Month, and a must-read for the Next Big Idea Club, run by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and others.
This book delves into the complex and nuanced theory of human desire with a fresh and clear perspective, while simultaneously connecting it to vivid examples and presenting it as a list of immediately actionable tactics. It will help you experience unprecedented happiness and fulfillment.
There is no tool more powerful than finding out "why" you want something.
We often believe that there is a straight line between ourselves and what we desire.
But that line is curved, and in between are people or things that are motivated to want it.
That is, our desires are influenced by models, and we live in imitative relationships with others.
In this way, 'imitation' is a powerful human instinct, not a concept that must be escaped or overcome.
But the life of someone who recognizes this and the life of someone who doesn't are completely different.
In the latter case, it is too easy to get stuck in a cycle of conflict and competition without ever finding what you want.
To this end, this book presents the imitative instinct, which influences all human psychology and behavior but is not readily apparent, based on specific scientific theories and experiments. This helps readers understand the true nature of the desires that have been controlling their lives and confront their own imitation of others' desires.
It also provides vivid examples of how this power of desire operates in our daily lives and businesses, helping us understand the cycle of desire, which can be either negative or positive depending on a shift in perception.
Who are we following?
Steve Jobs and Robert Friendly: The Desire Behind the Relationship Between Lamborghini and Ferrari
Ask yourself honestly:
Who do you feel more jealous of? Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man? Or a colleague who works in the same office as you but has a higher position and higher salary? It's probably the latter.
People don't think about competing with people who are far enough away from us in terms of time, space, money, or status.
But we engage in an unspoken competition with those who live in close contact with us.
The author distinguishes between Celebristan and Freshmanistan, and provides specific examples of how the Freshmanistan models serve as our direct competitors and imitators.
You will encounter the principles of desire that exist in exciting relationships, such as those of Steve Jobs' classmate Robert Friendly, who became the model for Steve Jobs, who surprised people with his eccentric behavior; Lamborghini, which went from being a tractor manufacturer to creating the world's most beloved supercar; and Ferrari, which ignited his desire.
Stop wanting to be the same as everyone else!
The Path to Absolute Happiness and Satisfaction
World-renowned chef Sebas Thienbras is asking the Michelin Guide, which has awarded his restaurant Le Suquet three stars for 19 consecutive years, to remove his restaurant.
Why did he make this decision?
Sebastien Bras set a goal of three Michelin stars and pursued it with all his life.
Then one day, he realized that pursuing that goal was killing him.
In order to satisfy the Michelin Guide, he was unable to develop the dishes he wanted and had to live under the stress and pressure of losing a star at any time.
In this way, this book questions the very setting and planning of goals that no one questions, even if they seem so obvious, and urges us to explore where those goals originated in the first place.
Because we need to check whether it is not coming from the imitation system that surrounds us.
The author divides desires into "shallow desires" that are imitative and contagious, and "thick desires" that are created deep beneath the surface and do not change easily. He explains that by discovering and developing thick desires, one can protect oneself from cheap imitative desires and ultimately live a life that gives one true satisfaction.
He emphasizes finding your own motivational patterns as an effective approach to discovering this thick desire, and introduces each of the 27 motivational items organized into themes in the main text and appendix of this book.
How Great Leaders Drive Desire
Highly recommended by global CEOs and world-renowned scholars
Unrivaled Insights for Business Success
The book begins with a one-on-one meeting between author Luke Burgess and world-renowned investor Peter Thiel.
“Imitation breeds competition, which breeds greater imitation.
Peter Thiel, who has said, “Competition is for losers,” emphasizes that following existing best practices will only lead to falling into the trap of competition, and that to become a successful entrepreneur, you must follow your own new values in places no one has thought of.
As Peter Thiel himself has revealed, his philosophy is influenced by the imitation theory of René Girard, of whom he was a student at Stanford University.
Thiel used his knowledge of imitation theory to manage his business and life.
As competition within the company intensified, each employee was given independent work to prevent them from competing with each other.
Additionally, the company merged to form a new company, PayPal, in a situation where an all-out war was unfolding with its competitor, Elon Musk's X.com.
Because we knew that when we model ourselves after each other, we would compete until the very end.
He also took the desire to imitate into account when making investment decisions.
Thiel immediately recognized the potential of Facebook, built on the desire to imitate, and became its first outside investor, saying he was “betting on mimesis.”
As a result, he invested $500,000 and made over $1 billion.
Peter Thiel belongs to the category of 'transcendent leaders' highlighted in this book.
Burgis summarizes the characteristics of transcendent leaders and their companies into five categories: shifting the center of gravity toward transcendent goals, increasing the speed of truth delivery, discernment that transcends rational analysis, training in silence, and training in filtering and listening to feedback. He then suggests how leaders can lead and control their desires.
The most complete deciphering of the mechanisms of human desire.
“Everyone with a desire needs this book.”
This book, which addresses desire through reflections that cross fields such as science, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, received rave reviews from the press and readers immediately after its publication.
The book also received praise from CEOs of global companies and world-renowned scholars. Professor Jonathan Haidt of New York University's Stern School of Business recommended it as "a must-read for leaders who lead people and organizations," and Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland emphasized that "anyone with a desire, that is, everyone, should read this book."
Wharton School professor Adam Grant assured readers that they would be instantly captivated by the author's logic, and media strategist and bestselling author Ryan Holiday named it one of his favorite books.
It was also selected as an Amazon Editor's Pick Nonfiction, the Financial Times Business Book of the Month, and a must-read for the Next Big Idea Club, run by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and others.
This book delves into the complex and nuanced theory of human desire with a fresh and clear perspective, while simultaneously connecting it to vivid examples and presenting it as a list of immediately actionable tactics. It will help you experience unprecedented happiness and fulfillment.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Publication date: July 11, 2022
- Page count, weight, size: 336 pages | 586g | 153*223*20mm
- ISBN13: 9791158511234
- ISBN10: 115851123X
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