Magic Lamp Efficiency

[TheGreatErenan]

I am silly, and therefore I sometimes ponder what the best use of three wishes would be if you happened to find a magic lamp with a genie inside.

For instance, what if your wishes were:

1. I wish to know the absolute most useful way that I could spend two wishes.
2. [Use this wish according to the knowledge you gain from wish #1]
3. [Use this wish according to the knowledge you gain from wish #1]
   

But what if the potential usefulness of three wishes so significantly outweighs the usefulness of two wishes that I am shortchanging myself by doing this? I need to figure this out just in case I find a genie some day.

What are your thoughts?

[retrotoaster]

Genies always seem to go out their way to get you for not being clear enough with your wording. So i reckon you'd have to use your first wish to say 'grant my next wishes according to what i actually want, not your interpretation'

[TheGoldenGriffin]

If that were true, then the knowledge from wish one would be, "don't spend your first wish wishing that, you just shortchanged yourself" and as a result, you have only two wishes to get what you want but at least you learned not to do that to a genie.

[.Memories.]

(06-21-2013 09:20 AM)retrotoaster Wrote:  Genies always seem to go out their way to get you for not being clear enough with your wording. So i reckon you'd have to use your first wish to say 'grant my next wishes according to what i actually want, not your interpretation'

That seems like a waste! Just be as clear as needed - don't allow for interpretation.

I don't know what I'd wish for, though, to make anything more efficient..

[TheGoldenGriffin]

I'd give the genie infinite power, and then see what happens

[[PETA] Doodat]

Uh... A genie with infinite power... Idk... Let's do it!

[TheGreatErenan]

(06-21-2013 09:22 AM)TheGoldenGriffin Wrote:  If that were true, then the knowledge from wish one would be, "don't spend your first wish wishing that, you just shortchanged yourself" and as a result, you have only two wishes to get what you want but at least you learned not to do that to a genie.

But then he wouldn't have granted my wish at all, since I wished for the knowledge of the best use of two wishes. I would demand my money back.

---

If we're talking about the "not going to screw you" sort of genie, a la Disney's Aladdin, then I'd say, "Look, let's make a deal. If you agree to perform four wishes for me once you are freed, then I will free you with my first wish." It's win, win, right?

[TheGoldenGriffin]

Thats against the rules he cant give more wishes, he cant bring back the dead, and he can't make someone love, he can't kill anybody, stuff like that. Of course, there are plenty of loopholes if you word it correctly

[TheGreatErenan]

But once he's free, then he can do what he wants, right? So maybe he could just do me a few favors before going on vacation.

[TheGoldenGriffin]

First make him an honest genie forever, just in case the genie is like a leprechaun, tricky and unpredictable. That way the genie won't do what ever he wants to your wishes and will grant them honestly like before he was free