this analogy is arguably obvious, but it's deep, useful, and easy to overlook in its implications - there seem to be two major kinds of wanting:

and

Obvious but it needs to be said: People are as bad at looking into hospitals for their own health as for the sake of their parents' health.

I found neither of these things the least bit obvious. I hadn't realized Implication 4 until I had been reading Less Wrong for many months and it was not obvious in retrospect. I hadn't even considered the distinction between urges and goals at all, though it did seem obvious in retrospect - only in retrospect.

I say this because I have had a ton of trouble grasping the concept that things that are obvious to me aren't necessarily obvious to other people.

(Though I don't want to make the same mistake and assume that other people also have this problem.)