Lance Pincock | Journal https://www.lancepincock.com/ Essays and notes on desire, language, work, books, games, and being a person. en-us What Is Mimetic Marketing? https://www.lancepincock.com/30-what-is-mimetic-marketing https://www.lancepincock.com/30-what-is-mimetic-marketing Fri, 03 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Mimetic marketing is the practice of marketing to desire's actual sources instead of its surface declarations. A definition, an ethic, and the receipts, from the marketer who built a methodology on René Girard. The Magic Mountain and the Discipline of Not Writing Yet https://www.lancepincock.com/29-magic-mountain-discipline https://www.lancepincock.com/29-magic-mountain-discipline Tue, 05 May 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Hans Castorp sat with illness for seven years. Lance sits with buyer data for weeks. The disease is the same: premature certainty. The Bolt-On https://www.lancepincock.com/28-the-bolt-on https://www.lancepincock.com/28-the-bolt-on Sun, 03 May 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Perry Belcher's highest-converting offer type isn't a transformation. It's an addition. And the reason it works is the reason it terrifies me. Working with AI as a Poet https://www.lancepincock.com/27-working-with-ai-poet https://www.lancepincock.com/27-working-with-ai-poet Sat, 02 May 2026 12:00:00 -0600 I use Claude every day. It can do things with structure and speed that would take me weeks. It cannot do the thing that matters most: decide what's worth saying. McAdams, Narrative Identity, and the Story Your Buyer Tells Themselves at 5 AM https://www.lancepincock.com/26-mcadams-narrative-identity https://www.lancepincock.com/26-mcadams-narrative-identity Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Dan McAdams proved humans don't have identities. They have stories. Your marketing is either part of that story or it's noise. The Girardian Scapegoat in Branding https://www.lancepincock.com/25-girardian-scapegoat-branding https://www.lancepincock.com/25-girardian-scapegoat-branding Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Every brand needs an enemy. Girard says that need is humanity's oldest impulse. The question is whether you choose your enemy or whether your brand mythology grows one for you in the dark. Collaborative Fiction as Therapy: Why Adults Need to Play Pretend https://www.lancepincock.com/24-collaborative-fiction https://www.lancepincock.com/24-collaborative-fiction Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Three dads in their 30s and 40s sit around a table every Thursday and narrate space horror. It's the most honest conversation they have all week. The Hidden Layer https://www.lancepincock.com/23-the-hidden-layer https://www.lancepincock.com/23-the-hidden-layer Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 215 primary sources. Three years of obsessive reading. A methodology built from the collision of mimetic desire theory, deep metaphor research, and a stubborn refusal to write copy from assumptions. What Can Change the Nature of a Man? https://www.lancepincock.com/22-planescape-torment https://www.lancepincock.com/22-planescape-torment Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 The greatest RPG ever made is one question repeated for sixty hours. You never get a clean answer. Neither does your buyer. She Read the Ad Out Loud and Couldn't Stop https://www.lancepincock.com/21-she-read-the-ad https://www.lancepincock.com/21-she-read-the-ad Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 A client read copy built from her buyers' own language and said 'That's huge for my culture.' The room went quiet. Not because it was clever. Because it was true. Writing a Book in Dialogue Because Essays Are Cowardly https://www.lancepincock.com/20-book-in-dialogue https://www.lancepincock.com/20-book-in-dialogue Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 I chose to write my entire book as a conversation between two people because it's harder to hide behind abstractions when someone is pushing back in real time. Pretty Pages, Dead Copy https://www.lancepincock.com/18-pretty-pages-dead-copy https://www.lancepincock.com/18-pretty-pages-dead-copy Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 The most beautiful website I ever built failed. The ugliest one I ever wrote worked. Design is not intelligence. Zaltman's Deep Metaphors and the Buyer Who Couldn't Explain Why She Bought https://www.lancepincock.com/17-zaltman-deep-metaphors https://www.lancepincock.com/17-zaltman-deep-metaphors Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Gerald Zaltman's research argues that most purchasing decisions happen below conscious awareness. Your survey may be asking the wrong layer. The Ache Nobody Talks About: Why Business Owners Hate Their Own Agencies https://www.lancepincock.com/16-ache-nobody-talks-about https://www.lancepincock.com/16-ache-nobody-talks-about Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 A recurring founder fear: the agency has the dashboard, so the owner does not feel informed enough to challenge the story. What Dungeon Mastering Teaches You About Leading a Team https://www.lancepincock.com/15-dungeon-mastering-leadership https://www.lancepincock.com/15-dungeon-mastering-leadership Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0600 The best DMs never force a plot. They build a world and let the players destroy it. The best leaders do the same thing. The Anti-Mimetic Postcard https://www.lancepincock.com/14-anti-mimetic-postcard https://www.lancepincock.com/14-anti-mimetic-postcard Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 We rewrote a client's direct mail piece by finding every phrase their competitors also used, then saying the opposite. The piece stopped sounding like the category and started sounding like the buyer. I Was a Mormon Missionary and a Poet and Neither Side Knew What to Do with Me https://www.lancepincock.com/13-mormon-missionary-poet https://www.lancepincock.com/13-mormon-missionary-poet Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Two years knocking on doors in a white shirt. Two decades wondering why institutions need you to stop asking questions. Elaine Pagels and the Mythology Your Brand Keeps Accidentally Building https://www.lancepincock.com/12-pagels-brand-mythology https://www.lancepincock.com/12-pagels-brand-mythology Sun, 22 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 The origins of Satan aren't what you think. Neither are the origins of your brand story. Both were manufactured by institutions that needed an enemy. The Universe Is Ridiculous and So Is Your Funnel https://www.lancepincock.com/11-universe-ridiculous-funnel https://www.lancepincock.com/11-universe-ridiculous-funnel Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Douglas Adams understood something about absurdity that every marketer needs to hear: the answer to everything is 42, and nobody remembers the question. 215 Sources Before a Single Word https://www.lancepincock.com/10-215-sources https://www.lancepincock.com/10-215-sources Sat, 14 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 I read 215 primary sources about one client's buyers before I wrote a single line of copy. Everyone thought I was stalling. I was loading the gun. The Mission Question https://www.lancepincock.com/09-mission-question https://www.lancepincock.com/09-mission-question Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 When your kid asks you what you do all day and you realize your answer sounds like a LinkedIn headline, something has gone wrong. Anne Sexton and the Courage to Say the Actual Thing https://www.lancepincock.com/08-anne-sexton-courage https://www.lancepincock.com/08-anne-sexton-courage Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 She wrote poems that made people physically uncomfortable. That's the standard. Not comfortable. True. Why Every Agency Sounds Like Every Other Agency https://www.lancepincock.com/07-every-agency-sounds-same https://www.lancepincock.com/07-every-agency-sounds-same Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 I read dozens of marketing-agency homepages. The same results-driven language kept returning. This is not a coincidence. This is Girard. Sitting with Data Like Hans Castorp Sat with Tuberculosis https://www.lancepincock.com/06-hans-castorp-data https://www.lancepincock.com/06-hans-castorp-data Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Thomas Mann wrote 700 pages about a man who went to a sanatorium for three weeks and stayed seven years. That's what real research feels like. The Immortality Project You're Building and Won't Admit https://www.lancepincock.com/05-immortality-project https://www.lancepincock.com/05-immortality-project Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Ernest Becker said every human enterprise is secretly a bid to outlive death. Your business is no exception. Neither is mine. Harold Bloom Walks Into a Marketing Meeting https://www.lancepincock.com/04-harold-bloom-marketing https://www.lancepincock.com/04-harold-bloom-marketing Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 The literary critic who said every reading is a misreading accidentally explained why your customers ignore your ads. What My English Degree Actually Taught Me About Selling https://www.lancepincock.com/03-english-degree-selling https://www.lancepincock.com/03-english-degree-selling Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Nobody recommends an English degree for marketing. That's because the people recommending things went to business school and learned to copy each other. Ramza Didn't Win. He Disappeared. https://www.lancepincock.com/02-ramza-didnt-win https://www.lancepincock.com/02-ramza-didnt-win Sat, 07 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Final Fantasy Tactics is the best marketing case study nobody talks about - the guy who told the truth got erased from history, and the liar became king. The Scapegoat in Your Ad Account https://www.lancepincock.com/01-scapegoat-ad-account https://www.lancepincock.com/01-scapegoat-ad-account Tue, 03 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 Every underperforming campaign has a sacrificial lamb. Usually it's the creative. Usually the creative isn't the problem.