Say you're a magician . Say you know that most things can be controlled with magic, but say each spell takes ages to learn - decades, say. What to learn first? How to produce terrifying fireballs ? immense speed ? understanding of aliens ? No: as every child knows, you wish for more wishes first. Immortality would be best, obviously, but no-one knows that one yet , so you take those cheap potions of minor fortitude , recall and wit that are around. At the same time, you target your own willpower , memory , reading speed , and read other wizards getting to the point of spell-books, saving years. Most of all, you learn the hard spell that makes you as right as you can be: strict conscious and unconscious reason.