About - Luke Burgis

📖 New Book: The One and the Ninety-Nine Pre-Order + VIP Access →

New Book — June 16, 2026

The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in an Age of Social Contagion

Why do some people change radically and others don't? Luke's new book from St. Martin's Press explores how identity forms, how social contagion spreads, and how individuals forge authentic selves in a mimetic world.

Pre-Order + VIP Access →

Hi, I'm Luke

Here's a quick version of my personal story

Here are some of my impressive achievements.

I broke my femur in a football game my freshman year of high school.

I didn’t handle it well.

My grades tanked, and I was kicked out for fighting.

In college, I chased the money. I chose a major that I didn’t like and got a job on Wall Street mostly through hustle.

At 23, I left it to start a healthy vending machine company out of a spare bedroom in Hollywood.

As I was nearing my late twenties, I co-founded two more companies and had everything (I thought) I ever wanted.

Then I realized I hadn't found anything at all. I was on a Sisyphean journey with no escape.

I spent three years in Italy practicing the art of meriggiando (whiling away the afternoons with long lunches, wine, and conversations with good company), while studying philosophy, theology, and classic literature.

I couldn’t continue to start businesses and chase dreams without understanding the truth about the human condition—and myself.

My work revolves around exploring human ecology—how our technology, relationships, politics, economics, education, and other systems affect what we want. In the end, each of us is either helping everyone that we come into contact with to want more, to want less, or to want differently. I believe that the future, like each of our lives, depends on what we learn to want today.

In the end, each of us is either helping everyone that we come into contact with to want more, to want less, or to want differently.

I believe that the future, like each of our lives, depends on what we learn to want today.

Writing

Speaking

Workshops

Consulting

Featured Videos

Keep up to date with what I’m thinking and writing about. I publish to Substack on a weekly basis.

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