Robby Stein(@rmstein):Why do we want what we want? It's a question I’ve been thinking about a lot since reading about René Girard’s work on mimetic desire. Did I choose this goal for myself, or did my environment choose it for me? When you work around high achieving people, aspirations spread through osmosis. It’s dangerously easy to absorb your peer group's definition of success and mistake it for your own. Real self-awareness is having the discipline to audit your goals. What do you really want for yourself from first principles? Make sure you aren't sprinting down someone else's track.

2026.10.08 16:55

Why do we want what we want? It's a question I’ve been thinking about a lot since reading about René Girard’s work on mimetic desire. Did I choose this goal for myself, or did my environment choose it for me? When you work around high achieving people, aspirations spread through osmosis. It’s dangerously easy to absorb your peer group's definition of success and mistake it for your own. Real self-awareness is having the discipline to audit your goals. What do you really want for yourself from first principles? Make sure you aren't sprinting down someone else's track.