notes on Wanting.
Mar. 3rd, 2022 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafaerystarted listening to my Wanting book today and instead of learning about mimetic desire, i feel like i'm learning about fundamental business strategies and fundamental ways to understand value and fulfillment in my own life. need to take some notes, here.
(my life has been uncontrolled chaos since getting back from the lookout, i'm completely disorganized and pulled in a hundred different directions, and while being in chronic pain, this leads to paralysis. I currently have over a week's worth of unanswered emails and texts. not a great way to run a business, when I am literally my business. people pay to spend time with me, to utilize my skills and to glean magic off of me. i can't just ignore them for weeks at a time like this and expect to continue to have any sort of income. sheesh.
anyway. i think the flywheel analogy is good, where the first goal of the business model leads to the next, and eventually leads back to the first again, so that it naturally propels itself forward. i want to write this down.
and the core values relationship to desire is even more important, just for myself, and figuring out, okay, what am i going to try to accomplish, today, to head toward fulfillment and move toward what is important to me, personally.
(This concept is from another book by Jim Collins, called Good to Great.)
Mimetic desire tends to move in one of two cycles. Cycle 1 is the negative cycle, in which mimetic desire leads to rivalry and conflict. This cycle runs on the false belief that other people have something that we don't have and that there isn't room for both the fulfillment of their desires and ours. It comes from a mindset of scarcity, of fear, of anger.
Cycle 2 is the positive cycle, in which mimetic desire unites people in a shared desire for some common good. It comes from a mindset of abundance and mutual giving. This type of cycle transforms the world. People want something that they couldn't imagine wanting before, and they help others go further too.
...There is not a linear process of continual improvement; there is a critical point at which momentum takes over, and the process begins to power itself. Mimesis too works like the flywheel. It accelerates in a non-linear way, in both positive and negative cases.
It's possible that we can set up our lives in such a way to maximize the momentum of desire.
Positive flywheel of desire: It contains the principle within it to help it achieve its purpose. Once you construct a flywheel and get it moving, it takes on a life of its own and begins to self-organize around an objective.
Everyone has to construct their own flywheels. There is no one flywheel for fitness, for example. Yours might look completely different from mine. The most effective personal flywheels come from people who know themselves well. You probably already have a tacit knowledge of things that will increase or decrease the likelihood that you're going to want to do them in the future.
The key is to make the cycle explicit. Then to put it in motion.
Tactic 5: Start positive flywheels of desire.
Desire is a path-dependent process. The choices we make today effect the things we'll want tomorrow. that's why it's important to map out as best we can the consequences of our actions on our future desires. Start by thinking seriously about what a positive cycle of desire might look like for you. Start with a core desire. It might be spending more time with your kids, having more leisure time, or writing a book. Then map out a system of desire that makes it easier to bring that core desire to fulfillment.
Write it down. I suggest that each step in the flywheel be one sentence, contain the word "want" or "desire" and link to the next step in the process with a connector, like, "so that," or "which leads to" or "which makes."
Here's an example from an ecommerce company that put a flywheel in motion for its customer service team, which had been complacent and unmotivated.
1. We want our customer service team to feel empowered to take ownership of decisions. So that,
2. Customers feel they are speaking to someone with authority, and therefore want to continue speaking to them instead of asking for a manager. So that,
3. Efficiencies are created that allow managers to spend less time talking to frustrated customers, and more time managing projects they want to be working on. So that,
4. We can create a discretionary bonus pool administered by managers who want to reward customer service team members who take ownership of decisions. So that,
5. The customer service members want to take more ownership of decisions.
Yours doesn't need to have 5 steps, but make sure each step inevitably leads to the next, and that the last step in the process leads back to the first.
(my life has been uncontrolled chaos since getting back from the lookout, i'm completely disorganized and pulled in a hundred different directions, and while being in chronic pain, this leads to paralysis. I currently have over a week's worth of unanswered emails and texts. not a great way to run a business, when I am literally my business. people pay to spend time with me, to utilize my skills and to glean magic off of me. i can't just ignore them for weeks at a time like this and expect to continue to have any sort of income. sheesh.
anyway. i think the flywheel analogy is good, where the first goal of the business model leads to the next, and eventually leads back to the first again, so that it naturally propels itself forward. i want to write this down.
and the core values relationship to desire is even more important, just for myself, and figuring out, okay, what am i going to try to accomplish, today, to head toward fulfillment and move toward what is important to me, personally.
(This concept is from another book by Jim Collins, called Good to Great.)
Mimetic desire tends to move in one of two cycles. Cycle 1 is the negative cycle, in which mimetic desire leads to rivalry and conflict. This cycle runs on the false belief that other people have something that we don't have and that there isn't room for both the fulfillment of their desires and ours. It comes from a mindset of scarcity, of fear, of anger.
Cycle 2 is the positive cycle, in which mimetic desire unites people in a shared desire for some common good. It comes from a mindset of abundance and mutual giving. This type of cycle transforms the world. People want something that they couldn't imagine wanting before, and they help others go further too.
...There is not a linear process of continual improvement; there is a critical point at which momentum takes over, and the process begins to power itself. Mimesis too works like the flywheel. It accelerates in a non-linear way, in both positive and negative cases.
It's possible that we can set up our lives in such a way to maximize the momentum of desire.
Positive flywheel of desire: It contains the principle within it to help it achieve its purpose. Once you construct a flywheel and get it moving, it takes on a life of its own and begins to self-organize around an objective.
Everyone has to construct their own flywheels. There is no one flywheel for fitness, for example. Yours might look completely different from mine. The most effective personal flywheels come from people who know themselves well. You probably already have a tacit knowledge of things that will increase or decrease the likelihood that you're going to want to do them in the future.
The key is to make the cycle explicit. Then to put it in motion.
Tactic 5: Start positive flywheels of desire.
Desire is a path-dependent process. The choices we make today effect the things we'll want tomorrow. that's why it's important to map out as best we can the consequences of our actions on our future desires. Start by thinking seriously about what a positive cycle of desire might look like for you. Start with a core desire. It might be spending more time with your kids, having more leisure time, or writing a book. Then map out a system of desire that makes it easier to bring that core desire to fulfillment.
Write it down. I suggest that each step in the flywheel be one sentence, contain the word "want" or "desire" and link to the next step in the process with a connector, like, "so that," or "which leads to" or "which makes."
Here's an example from an ecommerce company that put a flywheel in motion for its customer service team, which had been complacent and unmotivated.
1. We want our customer service team to feel empowered to take ownership of decisions. So that,
2. Customers feel they are speaking to someone with authority, and therefore want to continue speaking to them instead of asking for a manager. So that,
3. Efficiencies are created that allow managers to spend less time talking to frustrated customers, and more time managing projects they want to be working on. So that,
4. We can create a discretionary bonus pool administered by managers who want to reward customer service team members who take ownership of decisions. So that,
5. The customer service members want to take more ownership of decisions.
Yours doesn't need to have 5 steps, but make sure each step inevitably leads to the next, and that the last step in the process leads back to the first.
