= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
PhilGoetz comments on On dollars, utility, and crack cocaine - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (97)
I'm skeptical that anyone has made this explanation, since lottery tickets never have a positive expected return. You can only mean an "explanation" for people who don't know how to multiply.
Would you STOP IT? For the love of Cthulhu!
The classic explanation of expected utility vs. expected return deals with hypothetical lottery tickets that have an positive expected return but not positive expected utility.
Okay. Sorry. What I meant was, "Since lotteries always have a negative expected return, I think that maybe the explanations you are talking about are directed at people who think that the lottery has an expected positive return because they don't do the math." Which you just answered. I was not familiar with this classic explanation.