This is associating the self with the thing that decides how best to achieve goals (the earring / the part of your brain that works out how to achieve a goal),

This is associating the self with the thing that decides how best to achieve goals (the earring / the part of your brain that works out how to achieve a goal), while I'm saying that I think I would associate the self much more with the thing that decides what the goals are. > they don't just want to solve them; they want to solve them theirselves. That's what is lost here. I think in this story, the earring would not solve the crossword for you, if for some reason your goal was to solve the crossword yourself.