What You (Want to)* Want

Paul Graham’s essay What You (Want to)* Want explores the philosophical puzzle of reconciling deterministic physical behavior with the subjective experience of free choice.

The Core Problem

Graham has long wondered how something made of predictable matter can feel like it has genuine agency.

The Initial Insight

“You can do what you want, but you can’t want what you want.”

However, this breaks down because people demonstrably change their desires—addicts overcome cravings, people cultivate new preferences.

Adding Layers

The more accurate formulation introduces nested desires: you cannot control what you want to want.

Yet even this isn’t completely true. Adding successive “want to” layers gets progressively closer to an unchangeable baseline.

The Resolution

Using a regular expression framework: “There’s some statement of the form ‘you can’t (want to)* want what you want’ that’s true.”

Eventually you reach a foundational desire you don’t consciously control—the bedrock of choice.

My Takeaway

This preserves free will at the practical level while acknowledging that ultimate desires remain beyond conscious manipulation. You’re free, but only within limits you didn’t choose.