What You (Want To)* Want - Paul Graham: Essays  ## Metadata - Author: **Paul Graham: Essays** - Full Title: What You (Want To)* Want - Category: #articles - URL: http://www.paulgraham.com/want.html ## Highlights - How do you reconcile being a machine made of matter with the feeling that you're free to choose what you do? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h9nzkkp6jqjemyzr5fzyap2r)) - The wrong version is: You can do what you want, but you can't want what you want. Yes, you can control what you do, but you'll do what you want, and you can't control that. The reason this is mistaken is that people do sometimes change what they want. People who don't want to want something — drug addicts, for example — can sometimes make themselves stop wanting it. And people who want to want something — who want to like classical music, or broccoli — sometimes succeed. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h9nzn12ed8mw1epe6gr4fr85))