I think people who are not made happier by having things have the wrong things, or have them incorrectly.
The phrase “having things have the wrong things” is a grammatically valid noun phrase, and it took me >10s to figure out why the sentence [looks to me like it] is missing a predicate.
For my own part, I think I’m one of those people who is not made happier by having things have the wrong things. Although I’ll admit it amuses me sometimes, depending on what wrong things those things have.
You could make it an explicit “either . . . or.”
I.e. “I think that people who are not made happier by having things either have the wrong things or have them incorrectly.”
I would go with “having things either have the wrong things or have them incorrectly.” Possibly keep the comma to match speech patterns / make it slightly clearer, though I think it looks better without it.
I find the following difficult to parse:
The phrase “having things have the wrong things” is a grammatically valid noun phrase, and it took me >10s to figure out why the sentence [looks to me like it] is missing a predicate.
For my own part, I think I’m one of those people who is not made happier by having things have the wrong things. Although I’ll admit it amuses me sometimes, depending on what wrong things those things have.
Would it help if I added an ellipsis between “having things” and “have the wrong things”?
You could make it an explicit “either . . . or.” I.e. “I think that people who are not made happier by having things either have the wrong things or have them incorrectly.”
Insert “tend to” after “having things”.
I would go with “having things either have the wrong things or have them incorrectly.” Possibly keep the comma to match speech patterns / make it slightly clearer, though I think it looks better without it.