When I read “self-improvement” I don’t immediately think “investment to enhance one’s future earnings,” though I admit it does make some sense. The endogeneity problem largely disappears if you define your utility in monetary terms, but uncertainty still abounds, and actual problems may remain (most noticeably, self-investment may lead to lower utility if it doesn’t pay off, since you feel like you’re worth more than you get; while important, this is not reflected in a purely monetary model). Since your actual concern is probably utility and not money, that issue is significant.
Also, “transhumanist brain modifications” are hardly necessary to generate utility function changes. Most forms of self-improvement in the personal (as opposed to professional) sense are likely to either require or result in changes in one’s utility function.
I don’t think we disagree on anything substantive. You might find the post’s title misleading for a limited model like this, but I prefer it to something more disclaimer-heavy. For instance:
“A Toy Model Of Optimizing A Scalar-Valued Function Given Some Predictable Ability To Spend Time On Increasing The Rate of Change, But With A Discount Rate Included; Which Model May Be Of Some Analogous Application To Simple Work-Related Self-Optimization (Not Counting Self-Optimization Of Types That May Substantively Change One’s Goals And Valuations)”.
I agree on the first part. The rephrasing is perhaps a straw man. “The Math of When to Invest in Oneself,” would get the exact point across without the ambiguity of “self-improvement.”
When I read “self-improvement” I don’t immediately think “investment to enhance one’s future earnings,” though I admit it does make some sense. The endogeneity problem largely disappears if you define your utility in monetary terms, but uncertainty still abounds, and actual problems may remain (most noticeably, self-investment may lead to lower utility if it doesn’t pay off, since you feel like you’re worth more than you get; while important, this is not reflected in a purely monetary model). Since your actual concern is probably utility and not money, that issue is significant.
Also, “transhumanist brain modifications” are hardly necessary to generate utility function changes. Most forms of self-improvement in the personal (as opposed to professional) sense are likely to either require or result in changes in one’s utility function.
I don’t think we disagree on anything substantive. You might find the post’s title misleading for a limited model like this, but I prefer it to something more disclaimer-heavy. For instance:
“A Toy Model Of Optimizing A Scalar-Valued Function Given Some Predictable Ability To Spend Time On Increasing The Rate of Change, But With A Discount Rate Included; Which Model May Be Of Some Analogous Application To Simple Work-Related Self-Optimization (Not Counting Self-Optimization Of Types That May Substantively Change One’s Goals And Valuations)”.
I agree on the first part. The rephrasing is perhaps a straw man. “The Math of When to Invest in Oneself,” would get the exact point across without the ambiguity of “self-improvement.”
Fair enough; it was just too fun not to post.
(Of course, they actually did titles like that in the 17th century.)