I’m not sure I embody one! I’m not sure that I don’t just do whatever seems like the next thing to do at the time, based on a bunch of old habits and tendencies that I’ve rarely or never examined carefully.
I get up in the morning. I go to work. I come home. I spend more time reading the internets (both at work and at home) than I probably should—on occasion I spend most of the day reading the internets, one way or another, and while I’m doing so have a vague but very real thought that I would prefer to be doing something else, and yet I continue reading the internets.
I eat more or less the same breakfast and the same lunch most days, just out of habit. Do I enjoy these meals more than other options? Almost certainly not. It’s just habit, it’s easy, I do it without thinking. Does this mean that I have a utility function that values what’s easy and habitual over what would be enjoyable? Or does it mean that I’m not living in accord with my utility function?
In other words, is the sentence “I embody a utility function” intended to be tautological, in that by definition, any person’s way of living reveals/embodies their utility function (a la “revealed preferences” in economics), or is it supposed to be something more than that, something to aspire to that many people fail at embodying?
If “I embody a utility function” is aspirational rather than tautological—something one can fail at—how many people reading this believe they have succeeded or are succeeding in embodying their utility function?
I’m not sure I embody one! I’m not sure that I don’t just do whatever seems like the next thing to do at the time, based on a bunch of old habits and tendencies that I’ve rarely or never examined carefully.
I get up in the morning. I go to work. I come home. I spend more time reading the internets (both at work and at home) than I probably should—on occasion I spend most of the day reading the internets, one way or another, and while I’m doing so have a vague but very real thought that I would prefer to be doing something else, and yet I continue reading the internets.
I eat more or less the same breakfast and the same lunch most days, just out of habit. Do I enjoy these meals more than other options? Almost certainly not. It’s just habit, it’s easy, I do it without thinking. Does this mean that I have a utility function that values what’s easy and habitual over what would be enjoyable? Or does it mean that I’m not living in accord with my utility function?
In other words, is the sentence “I embody a utility function” intended to be tautological, in that by definition, any person’s way of living reveals/embodies their utility function (a la “revealed preferences” in economics), or is it supposed to be something more than that, something to aspire to that many people fail at embodying?
If “I embody a utility function” is aspirational rather than tautological—something one can fail at—how many people reading this believe they have succeeded or are succeeding in embodying their utility function?