In the previous example, will it make any difference if the reasons that convinced you to go skiing are really good reasons? Will it make any difference if they were not good reasons, but were instead...

In the previous example, will it make any difference if the reasons that convinced you to go skiing are really good reasons? Will it make any difference if they were not good reasons, but were instead the product of elaborate self-deception? (You tell yourself—and convince yourself—that you are going for the exercise, when all your friends know that your real motivation is a glimpse of a ski instructor with whom you once had a passionate relation, but who is now indifferent to you, but for whom you still carry a torch—though you will not admit it to your friends nor even to yourself. You say things like “I wouldn’t spend two minutes with that ski instructor, even if she begged me”; meanwhile, your friends exchange knowing smiles.)