Chasing Trends

To chase trends is to participate in a collective motion, like a thousand starlings sweeping through the sky in unison without explicit coordination. Those at the forefront seem to determine the direction, but the front constantly shifts. The so-called trendsetter or influencer is simply a bird working its way toward the head of the flock. The rest remain content somewhere in the middle—comfortable and shielded.

But underlying this swirling mass, whether birds or humans, is an invisible matrix of desire. We are pushed and pulled in ways we can hardly comprehend, unable to truly disentangle. Even Clint Eastwood, that icon of rugged individualism, cannot exist entirely alone. The edges of this matrix are uncomfortable—you risk being poor, lonely, and irrelevant. Yet staying in the comfortable middle takes effort. Trends shift without warning, often running counter to what you might personally enjoy or value.

Each field has its own currents. Fashion, food, travel, even science—all are swept by trends. Choose a scientific focus too far outside the prevailing winds, and you may find yourself without funding. We navigate these currents because we want to be desirable or respectable in this shared matrix of desires. The specifics of it—whether food or fashion—are often incidental. Desire is, at its core, a social construct. To speak of “your own desire” is a kind of myth.

Drive, however, is a different force altogether. The ceramicist drawn to the tactile pleasure of shaping clay or the home cook finding joy in the alchemy of ingredients—these are examples of drive. The pleasure is in the process itself, in the feel of the clay, the rhythm of the kneading. Whether anyone else appreciates it is secondary. Drive is solitary, self-contained.

When we fail to distinguish between desire and drive, unnecessary frustration brews because they aim at opposite ends. Desire seeks social validation; drive seeks satisfaction from the act itself. If you are fortunate, the two will align, and you might make a living doing what you love. But alignment is rare. More often, we are tasked with reconciling the tension between these two independent forces.