This morning I ran into a genie who granted me one wish. "I said, I want to live forever."
— Clinton (@614clinton) April 17, 2026
He sighed, "I can't do that. It's against the rules. Ask for something else."
I thought about it for a minute, and said, "Okay, I want to live until my wife is happy with her outfit, and…
You do know how this is going to end, though, right? The husband's not going to live forever because he never wished for his wife to live forever so that she could remain forever dissatisfied. So, in no literal sense will she be eternally unsatisfied with her outfit. And being noneternal, she will die, but she might well be reliably dissatisfied until she dies. Once she passes away, though, the force of the wish will disappear. Why? Because the genie has already said "I can't do that" regarding the man's initial wish for eternal life. With only the man left after the wife dies, the nature of the wish must necessarily change to "Keep this man eternally alive," which the genie has already stated can't be done. Also, you can't change the nature of a wish without changing the wish. So in the end, there will be an end for the man.
And what about this: If the wife is, one day, unwontedly satisfied with her outfit, then the husband will die before she does! Either way, the man is going to die.
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