we've gotten good at giving people what they want in a way that prevents them from wanting anything worth having.

The thin desire reproduces itself without remainder.

The thick desire transforms its host.

the front porches gave way to backyard decks and studio apartments and the coveted Micro Homes where you could be alone with your devices.

A thick desire is one that changes you in the process of pursuing it.

A thin desire is one that doesn't.

The thick life doesn't scale.

That's the whole point.

Meanwhile the infrastructure for thin desires became essentially inescapable.

It's in your pocket right now.

A thick desire is one that changes you in the process of pursuing it.

A thin desire is one that doesn't.

Thick desires are inconvenient.

They take years to cultivate and can't be satisfied on demand.

The desire to master a craft, to read slowly, to be embedded in a genuine community, to understand your place in some tradition larger than yourself: these desires are effortful to acquire and impossible to fully gratify.

They embed you in webs of obligation