The Insatiable Desire Loop
Build on a want that refreshes, so every repetition compounds your lead
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
Godin distinguishes two loop types: negative loops are thermostats that hold things steady, positive loops are the wedding microphone screech that amplifies around and around. Strategy means designing for the second. Start by finding an insatiable desire, one that refreshes rather than being permanently satisfied: caffeine every morning, or status. Become its reliable purveyor, and risk-averse people keep returning. Contrast shoes, where a full closet caps demand, so even Louboutin cannot scale to infinity. Layer on a network effect, but only a real one, tested by asking why it works better for the user if their friends have it too. Email and fax are the pure cases; Krispy Kreme priced a dozen below four singles so the sharer arrived at work a hero, and the sharing itself spread the idea.
Origin
Extracted from The Tim Ferriss Show
Core principles
- 01A positive feedback loop amplifies; a negative one stabilises
- 02Desires that refresh daily beat desires that get satisfied once
- 03The real test is whether it works better when I tell my friends
- 04Network effects must benefit the user, not just the seller
- 05Compounding beats stealing market share
How to run it
- 1
Find an insatiable desire
Identify a want that regenerates on its own schedule, such as daily caffeine or ongoing status, rather than one that is permanently solved by a single purchase.
Pro tip Status and affiliation are the two most reliably insatiable desires available.
Watch out Check for saturation ceilings before committing: closet space, budget, or attention.
- 2
Become the reliable purveyor
Deliver it consistently enough that risk-averse people stop shopping around. Reliability is what converts a repeated desire into a habit.
- 3
Make each repetition worth more than the last
Structure the work so the tenth instalment is more valuable to someone who consumed the first nine. Godin's blog reaching post ten thousand is a lead nobody can close.
Pro tip Serialised work compounds; interchangeable work does not.
Watch out If your episode one hundred is no better for having seen episode one, there is no loop.
- 4
Test for a genuine network effect
Ask the specific question: why is this better for the user, not for you, if their friends also have it? Email fails without other users; The Big Lebowski needs someone to discuss it with.
Pro tip If you cannot answer it in one sentence, there is no network effect.
Watch out 'It would be good for us if more people used it' is not a network effect.
- 5
Give the sharer a reason to share
Engineer status or affiliation into the act of sharing itself, so telling friends is intrinsically rewarding rather than a favour to you.
Pro tip Krispy Kreme made a dozen cheaper than four, so the sharer became the office hero.
Watch out No incentive to tell others means no spread, however good the product is.
In the wild
Krispy Kreme priced a dozen doughnuts below the cost of four, at a time when the doughnuts were scarce. Anyone who turned up at work with a box was instantly a hero to their colleagues. Every act of sharing raised the sharer's standing, which meant the sharing was self-motivated rather than a favour to the company, and the idea spread on the back of that status transaction.
→ Word of mouth driven by the sharer's own status gain rather than by advertising spend.
Richard Garfield's design offered a lonely kid affiliation: a way to spend hours with other people without having the conversations that make them uncomfortable, because you can talk about dragons and orcs instead. Making the cards collectible then added status, since a thicker or more valuable deck moves you up among the people you compete with. Godin's point is that affiliation and status kept dancing back and forth, each reinforcing the other, on top of a game that inherently requires other players.
→ A compounding phenomenon where the social loop, not the ruleset, drove sustained growth.
Common mistakes
Chasing market share instead of desire
Godin says insatiable desires are everywhere but we ignore them and try to steal share from somebody else, which produces no compounding at all.
Assuming any popular product has a network effect
Most things people build have no sharing incentive; without a reason it is better for the user when friends join, there is no loop, only marketing.
Is it for you?
Best for
Media, community, subscription and platform builders deciding what to build so that early traction becomes an insurmountable lead.
Not ideal for
Durable one-time purchases with a natural saturation point, where repeat demand simply does not exist.
From the transcript
“We want to find an insatiable desire and start the path of filling it.”
“Where is the network effect, why does it work better? Not better for you, but better for the user if their friends have it too.”
“The more times people shared Krispy Kreme, the happier the sharer was, and the word spread.”
From the episode
#792: Seth Godin on Playing the Right Game and Strategy as a Superpower