# Poll:the three wishes that came true **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426 "2011-04-15T01:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/1 "2011-04-15T01:16:02Z")
So, it turns out that our resident pain in the butt, [the](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=569304) [relationship](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=563471) [fairy](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=563323), is related to other fae. One of her cousins, a fairy godmother type who deals with end-of-life matters, will be waiting for you when you shuffle off this mortal coil. (I’m sure this comes as a surprise to you, but go with it.) She informs you that you need to talk for a minute before you line up for judgment. This is what she tells you: Over the course of every human life, three things people wish come true… but the wishes are granted at random, so they’re not necessarily the things you wanted most or even things you wanted for longer than a fleeting thought that entered your mind. On the other hand, it’s possible that they are responsible for great good in your life. Now that you’re dead, you’re allowed three options. a. you can choose to know exactly what random things you wished for came true, and how they changed the course of your life. This would result in a power-point presentation that showed the course of your life had you not made the wishes, plus a brief Q&A session at her convenience and discretion. b. you can choose to know what the wishes were, but opt out of knowing what they changed (presumably so you don’t have to beat yourself up if they resulted in bad changes or seemed wasted for being completely inconsequential). c. you can tell fairy godmother to bugger off, and keep the information to herself. Which choice do you make? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/2 "2011-04-15T01:36:50Z")
I’d go for A. My curiosity wouldn’t let me do otherwise. I try not to have regrets and would endeavor not to second guess myself once knowing. Still, given the option I’d want to know how it all played out. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/3 "2011-04-15T01:44:57Z")
I think I’d find it interesting. Lay it on me, fairy godmother! ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/4 "2011-04-15T01:45:14Z")
I’m dead. Regrets are kind of meaningless. I want to satisfy every bit of curiosity I can. If I’m judged poorly, and that results in some kind of hell, then a little extra misery about bad decisions isn’t going to matter much. And if I’m judged well and get to go the heavenly route, I’m sure my pleasant afterlife will more than make up for any way that I didn’t live my earthly life the best way I could. I just want the knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![\_mostly\_Harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/9d8465/32.png) [@\_mostly\_Harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_mostly_Harmless)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/5 "2011-04-15T02:29:16Z")
I will never (well mostly) turn down the opportunity to know something that I didn’t before. If it’s about me then that would become an unqualified ‘never.’ ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/6 "2011-04-15T03:41:06Z")
What difference does it make? Its really no difference from random chance in practise. They cant be ‘wasted’ because you have no control over them in the first place. Otara ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/7 "2011-04-15T05:37:26Z")
C. I can’t imagine why I would want to know any of that. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/8 "2011-04-15T10:28:22Z")
A. I’d want to know which events in my life were influenced by her. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/9 "2011-04-15T12:22:44Z")
I’d be curious what the wishes were but if I was hungry and wished for some food and the wish was granted by a resteraunt door opening infront of me; I really don’t care how that changed my life. If it was something major I like to see what could have been but I think in most cases the extrapolation would be pretty straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/10 "2011-04-15T16:45:55Z")
I think that would be so cool! I’ve often wondered things like “If X had gone differently, how would my life be different?” Not because I don’t love the life I have, which I do, but it would just be really neat to see what things would have been different (or not) given a large or small change. Would the things that look huge to me have made a huge difference, or only a small one? I’d also love to see wishes that didn’t come true – if I had gotten my wish to be at the same college as Boyfriend #2 how would my life have changed? would I have married (ick, and probably divorced) him? – and ones that came true or didn’t for other people. …I really like reading alternate-history stories, can you tell? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/11 "2011-04-15T19:37:59Z")
I’ went with A. I’d want to know, and not just half of it. Might I regret the knowledge? Sure. But I know for sure I’d regret it if I turned it down. ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/12 "2011-04-15T20:11:41Z")
I would have to know, even if I suspected some of the wishes. One scary idea was that hell was where you are given total enlightenment of exactly the ripple effect of every decision you made in life! Practically, after a few alternate decisions, you would not be “you”. But, it would be frightening and frustrating to see how even the smallest of decisions (say “Hi” instead of miss the chance; play the game instead of sit out; grab the ribbon from the goat’s horns instead of stay behind the fence) would have created a new “you” and a new world. ---
**Author:** ![wonder\_lust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@wonder\_lust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder_lust)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/13 "2011-04-15T20:12:28Z")
Given that I at no point did I ever have control over which wishes, big or small, came true, it would be virtually impossible to have regrets. So yeah, I’d be curious. I mean if all three of my granted wishes were akin to “Please let the Peeps be stale enough to eat,” I’d be a little irritated, but at least I could feel like I controlled my own destiny and that my life choices mattered. And if any one of them were akin to “I hope mr. lust asks me to marry him,” I’d be grateful for the intervention. It would be fun to know either way. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/14 "2011-04-18T02:00:20Z")
Would anyone be upset if they discovered that some of the good things in their lives came from a wish granted by chance rather than through their own effort? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/15 "2011-04-18T02:01:18Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Would anyone be upset if they discovered that some of the good things in their lives came from a wish granted by chance rather than through their own effort? I know this to be true. Well, not a wish, but chance. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-the-three-wishes-that-came-true/578426/16 "2011-04-18T17:00:27Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Would anyone be upset if they discovered that some of the good things in their lives came from a wish granted by chance rather than through their own effort? What **jsgoddess** said. All the good things in my life came through chance anyway, so I don’t see much difference.