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Decius comments on How To Have Things Correctly - Less Wrong
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These aren't really in tension. Do you want to bake muffins? Then arrange to bake muffins. Do you not want to bake muffins? Then don't buy a muffin tin. Do you want to have and benefit from a cloak? Then acquire and arrange to wear a cloak. Do you not want to have and benefit from a cloak? Then don't acquire a cloak. The failure mode we wish to avoid is "want to use thing, wind up not actually using thing".
Thank you- what you have just described, in terms of my original question, is that you correctly predicted that you would wear that cloak and acquire significant value from it.
Perhaps it might be better off described as "Get into the habit of doing the things that you believe are optimal." If you get into the habit of not baking muffins because you don't have a muffin tin, then getting a muffin tin will not break the habit of not baking. The step 'break the habit of not doing something you want to do' is pretty important in acquiring value out of an item which enables you to do something that you want to do.
I suspected, however, that your actual advice was 'change so that you want to do things so that you can acquire value from things which enable you to do those things'.