Finishing up Rene Girard’s “Things Hidden Since The Foundation of the World” and Holy ****!
This is to Psychology/Sociology what “Descent of Man” is to Biology and what “Principia” is to Physics. Arguably the most red/black pill book of all time. It is Peter Thiel’s favorite book of all-time and what made him become the first outside investor in Facebook since he understood the power of Mimetic Desire and how Facebook would harness that power. Tread lightly though….it will likely rewire your brain and alter your life about 4 chapters in.
tl;dr - after the basic necessities in life (food, shelter, etc.) we desire things because others desire them, not because we intrinsically desire them. In fact we can’t intrinsically desire anything. All desire is imitative throughout our entire lives from our parents, to our peers, to celebrities, etc.
Shortest video I could find that accurately explains it:
Applying that to specialty choice - Competitive specialties are competitive in large part because they’re competitive. Medical students see that X specialty is competitive and surmise it must be a good speciality not realizing that it may not be a good speciality for them. Often times students who do well in med school feel they need to apply to a competitive field to validate their achievement. This drives up more interest and the cycle continues.
People often chalk up competitiveness of a specialty to a combination of money and lifestyle but ignore the most important component - the competitiveness itself (a proxy for prestige and desirability).
Students that apply to non-competitive fields are either limited by scores/grades/school but more often have other models of desire that outweigh the ones of chasing pure desirability. For example someone may want to model their career after their hometown pediatrician who took care of them and their siblings and that mimetic desire is stronger than the potential mimetic desire of the top students in their class wanting to go into surgical sub specialties.
The important thing is to realize that you can’t escape mimesis but instead you should choose your models of desire carefully. Additionally you should focus on thick desires (values that are related to your core being) rather than thin desires (fads and trends that the crowd is going for)
Luke Burgis talks more about this here
I see a lot of befuddled med students deciding what specialty to go into both in real life and here and figured this would provide a fresh perspective on that. Let me know your thoughts!
This is to Psychology/Sociology what “Descent of Man” is to Biology and what “Principia” is to Physics. Arguably the most red/black pill book of all time. It is Peter Thiel’s favorite book of all-time and what made him become the first outside investor in Facebook since he understood the power of Mimetic Desire and how Facebook would harness that power. Tread lightly though….it will likely rewire your brain and alter your life about 4 chapters in.
tl;dr - after the basic necessities in life (food, shelter, etc.) we desire things because others desire them, not because we intrinsically desire them. In fact we can’t intrinsically desire anything. All desire is imitative throughout our entire lives from our parents, to our peers, to celebrities, etc.
Shortest video I could find that accurately explains it:
Applying that to specialty choice - Competitive specialties are competitive in large part because they’re competitive. Medical students see that X specialty is competitive and surmise it must be a good speciality not realizing that it may not be a good speciality for them. Often times students who do well in med school feel they need to apply to a competitive field to validate their achievement. This drives up more interest and the cycle continues.
People often chalk up competitiveness of a specialty to a combination of money and lifestyle but ignore the most important component - the competitiveness itself (a proxy for prestige and desirability).
Students that apply to non-competitive fields are either limited by scores/grades/school but more often have other models of desire that outweigh the ones of chasing pure desirability. For example someone may want to model their career after their hometown pediatrician who took care of them and their siblings and that mimetic desire is stronger than the potential mimetic desire of the top students in their class wanting to go into surgical sub specialties.
The important thing is to realize that you can’t escape mimesis but instead you should choose your models of desire carefully. Additionally you should focus on thick desires (values that are related to your core being) rather than thin desires (fads and trends that the crowd is going for)
Luke Burgis talks more about this here
I see a lot of befuddled med students deciding what specialty to go into both in real life and here and figured this would provide a fresh perspective on that. Let me know your thoughts!
