Mimetic Desire

Desire is the feeling of “craving” or “longing for” something. We tend to think of our desires as something intrinsic, they come from our nature and others have nothing to do with it. But certainly, part of who we are is molded by others, be it our genes from our parents or the culture we surround ourselves in. This means that what we desire is already partially defined by others (if our desires come from who we are and others helped us get here then they influence what we desire). This is where the concept of mimetic desire in the theory of desire comes in, when we don’t know what we want, we will want what others want.

After getting to know this concept, or better, having a name to reference to it, I’m getting more conscious of when it happens. How many times don’t we get interested in something just because we see someone else excited about it? That’s not necessarily bad, especially when it’s going to be a shared experience, like what to have for dinner or what movie to watch. On the other hand, we need to be careful when the desires or dreams of others affect our decision-making in areas where only we will have to with the consequences, how to spend time, what to do for a living, and who to marry.

I should make an addendum that this is not the kind of concept where I am eager for experiments and findings that hold this thesis, as I may be with other subjects. What I’m trying to say is I don’t really care if it’s true, I see it as a thought experiment, something to learn about and reflect upon.

What I learned this week

There is an excellent interactive game called The Evolution of Trust that uses principles of game theory to explore multiple ways players can interact and how things like forgiveness and mistakes can influence, especially when adding more players.

Publishing an app is much harder than a website.