Not that I fully support utility functions as a useful concept, but having a consistent one also keeps you from dutch booking yourself. You can interpret any decision as a bet using utility and people often make decisions that cost them effort and energy but leave them in the same place where they started. So it’s possible trying to figure out one’s utility function can help prevent eg anxious looping behavior.
Sure, if you’re right about your utility function. The failure mode I’m worried about is people believing they know what their utility function is and being wrong, maybe disastrously wrong. Consistency is not a virtue if, in reaching for consistency, you make yourself consistent in the wrong direction. Inconsistency can be a hedge against making extremely bad decisions.
Not that I fully support utility functions as a useful concept, but having a consistent one also keeps you from dutch booking yourself. You can interpret any decision as a bet using utility and people often make decisions that cost them effort and energy but leave them in the same place where they started. So it’s possible trying to figure out one’s utility function can help prevent eg anxious looping behavior.
Sure, if you’re right about your utility function. The failure mode I’m worried about is people believing they know what their utility function is and being wrong, maybe disastrously wrong. Consistency is not a virtue if, in reaching for consistency, you make yourself consistent in the wrong direction. Inconsistency can be a hedge against making extremely bad decisions.