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Burgis: People easily identify positive role models but struggle to name negative ones

Luke Burgess · Luke Burgis: The Power of Mimetic Desire · May 31, 2022 · at 1:18:03

Author Luke Burgis discusses self-awareness and mimetic desire with Shane Parrish, explaining why identifying negative influences makes people uncomfortable.

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“Naming our desires is critical and naming models is critical, both the negative models and the positive models. And I would bet that it's a lot easier for most people listening to name your positive models of desire, right? It could be Warren Buffett as an investor. It could be somebody who models a great family life, whatever. Usually we can come up with those off the top of our heads. The negative ones are a little bit harder to name because it makes us uncomfortable.”

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