I recently read what was supposed to be a touching story about a wife’s dying wish for her husband and family (linked below). I didn’t find it particularly moving. Neither her words, nor her wish. What was kind of neat in this story is her husband’s ability to see patterns in the randomness — to interpret things like rainbows and large seagulls as the spirit of his wife. In general, human ability to read meaning into meaningless things. Maybe it’s like how when you love someone, they’re in every song you hear.

I remember hearing about the elaborate wishes that dying children got from the Make-a-Wish foundation and being jealous. I remember wishing that I was terminally ill so I could have a wish too. I think programs incentivize the wrong thing. You shouldn’t want to die as a child.

One of the things I will do when I am rich is have a wish fulfillment non-profit but it won’t be restricted to people who are dying. I will restrict it to people who are doing things that I would like to incentivize. Or maybe just to people whose wishes I like. Or people I like. Depending on how wealthy I am, I may even be able to fulfill completely illegal wishes like “Please blow up the entire NYC skyline to tune of Tchaikovsky’s 1st piano concerto”! Why should dying kids have all the fun? Amuse me with your wish or with the force of your personality and yours can come true too!

Wife’s dying wish for husband’s new family