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timtyler comments on Would Your Real Preferences Please Stand Up? - Less Wrong
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We do not have to choose between these two theories. Sometimes the conscious goals are best, and the unconscious procrastinates in an undesirable fashion. Sometimes the unconscious is doing what is best, while consciousness struggles to cover the actions with a veneer of acceptability, for example by dissassociating itself from them.
Few examples where "unconscious" beats "conscious" hands down are dancing and driving a car.
What is "unconscious" about either of those?
ETA: Both of them are physical and mental skills, deliberately learned. In this, they do not differ from learning yoga postures, learning a musical instrument, or learning any sport.
You get better at yoga postures, playing a musical instrument, and playing sports when you do those things enough that the bits you commonly do over and over are picked up on by your subconscious so your conscious doesn't have to worry about them anymore. That's my guess.
A more classical example would be various kinds of illicit sex (underage, across marriage vows, etc). Probably good for the genes - but often needing some rationalisation in the face of conventional moral norms - and sometimes the indvidual's own sense of morality.
You are thinking of different concepts from the ones discussed in the post. These are not conflicting goals or drives, these are different ways of implementing a skill: intuitive vs. deliberative (however they are properly called). Either of these can be deployed for the ends of either conscious or subconscious preferences.