The Truck in Exchange. The Truck Barter in Exchange

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I don't think he had any romance about the world. He certainly wasn't, you know, a modern economist with anatomistic, individualistic max. But in economics, he was, right? In economics. Let me say the truck in exchange is people are individuals. They do act individually. There's a social consequence. You lose respect to your friends. We look out for ourselves.

When the 20-year-old overachiever Johnathan Bi's first startup crashed and burned, he headed to a Zen retreat in the Catskills to "debug himself." He discovered René Girard and his mimetic theory--the idea that imitation is a key and often unconscious driver of human behavior. Listen as entrepreneur and philosopher Bi shares with EconTalk host Russ Roberts what he learned from Girard and Girard's insights into how we meet our primal need for money, fame, and power. The conversation includes the contrasts between economics and Girard's perspective.