* "You should wish for me to tell you what you would wish for in your place if I had your current intelligence and knowledge, but the same values and desires as you." * "I have replaced your values and desires with my own. You should wish to become a genie." * "Here is your list of all possible wishes." * "You should wish that genies never existed."

The genie replies, "What I would wish for in those circumstances would only be of value to an entity of my own intelligence and knowledge. You couldn't possibly use it. And beside, I'm sorry, but there's no such thing as 'your values and desires'. You're barely capable of carrying out a decision made yesterday to go to the gym today. You might as well ask me to make colourless green ideas sleep furiously. On a more constructive note, I suggest you start small, and wish for fortunate chances of a scale that could actually happen without me, that will take you a little in whatever direction you want to go. I'll count something that size as a milli-wish. Then tomorrow you can make another, and so on. I have to warn you, though, that still ends badly for some people. Giving you this advice counts as your first milli-wish. See you tomorrow."