We are living with a near-universal thin desire: wanting something that cannot actually be gotten, that we can't define, from a source that has no interest in providing it.

The distinction between thick and thin desires isn't original to me.

Philosophers have been circling this territory for decades, from Charles Taylor's work on frameworks of meaning to Agnes Callard's more recent writing on aspiration.

But the version I find most useful is simple:

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

A thin desire is one that doesn't.