Naval sees copying as the source of human suffering. “We’re highly memetic creatures. We copy everybody around us. We copy our desires from them.” This is bad code running in human brains.
He discovered this through René Girard’s mimetic theory. “I’m reading a book on René Girard’s mimetic theory. It’s more of an overview book because I couldn’t make it through his actual writings.” The theory works like fundamental physics: it explains complex social behavior through simple rules.
“If everyone around me is a great artist, I want to be an artist. If everyone around me is a great businessperson, I want to be a businessperson. If everybody around me is a social activist, I want to be a social activist.” This destroys authentic desire. It creates competition where cooperation would create more value.
Most people run evolutionary programming without knowing it. “Peter Thiel has this whole thing from René Girard about how mimetic desires are desires picked up from other people, and some of those are automatically baked into society like go to law school, go to med school, go to business school.” Society’s broken incentives program fake success metrics. These compound negatively into zero-sum games.
“When you’re competing with people it’s because you’re copying them”
Naval escaped through authenticity. “Don’t imitate. Don’t copy. Just do your own thing. No one can compete with you on being you.” This creates infinite leverage through irreplaceable skills. You build equity in yourself instead of fighting for someone else’s vision.
Modern media weaponizes mimetic behavior. “Modern media is a delivery mechanism for mimetic viruses” News exploits game theory: it spreads by triggering fear and outrage, not by conveying truth. This creates anxiety loops that prevent clear thinking. Naval calls these memetic viruses: ideas that compound exponentially through psychological manipulation.
The antidote is solitude. When you stop consuming others’ desires, you can hear your own.