#153 Beyond Mimetic Desires - Luke Burgis on the temptations of conformity, contemplating life in Starbucks, thick desires and thin desires, letting go of control, the importance of play, learning from different work cultures, his stay in Rome and becoming a father

Luke has a background on Wall Street and has founded 3 companies in Silicon Valley. He describes his adult life as a constant state of uncertainty. At some point, he took a classics course, which he completed in a 24-hour Starbucks in a couple of months while living in Las Vegas. This led to him to contemplate deeper questions, leaving "entrepreneur Luke" behind and spending 3 years in Rome. Luke is now a Professor at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship and has written a book — "WANTING: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life." The book is one of the best ones I've read in the past couple of years and we talk about some of the ideas in the book and how they intersect with Luke and my life.

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Links:

• Personal website
• Twitter: @lukeburgis
• Luke's book: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
• Luke's Newsletter

⌛TIMESTAMPS

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:16) - The scripts that Luke grew up with
• (15:57) - Book publishing the temptations of conformity
• (23:22) - The memetic desires & The romantic lie of our own desires
• (28:52) - Doing the classics course after hours
• (33:40) - The importance of play & Feeding the spirit
• (36:27) - Thick Desires & Thin Desires
• (46:10) - Creativity, Being open & Letting go of control
• (50:36) - Learning from different work cultures & transcending the system
• (57:46) - "The Three Cities Problem" — Reason, Faith & Technology
• (01:06:07) - What’s next, preparing to be a father
• (01:14:35) - Luke's path role models
• (01:17:33) - Closing remarks

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