The last line really helped me see where you are coming from: You take the expectation of the utility of the money, not the utility of the expectation of the money.
However, at http://lesswrong.com/lw/hl/lotteries_a_waste_of_hope/, you argue against playing the lotto because the utility of the expectation itself is very bad. Now granted, the expectation of the utility is also not great, but let’s say the lotto offered enough of a jackpot (with the same long odds) to offer an appropriate expectation of utility. Wouldn’t you still be arguing that it is a “hope sink”, thus focusing on the utility of the expectation?
Most mathematically-competent commenters agreed that the expected utility of lotteries was bad. Some people disagreed that the utility of expectation was bad, though. Yudkowsky was arguing against these commenters, saying that both expected utility and utility of expectation are bad. The arguments in the post you linked are not the main reasons Yudkowsky does not play the lottery, but rather the arguments that convey the most new information about the lottery (and whatever the lottery is being used to illustrate).
The last line really helped me see where you are coming from: You take the expectation of the utility of the money, not the utility of the expectation of the money.
However, at http://lesswrong.com/lw/hl/lotteries_a_waste_of_hope/, you argue against playing the lotto because the utility of the expectation itself is very bad. Now granted, the expectation of the utility is also not great, but let’s say the lotto offered enough of a jackpot (with the same long odds) to offer an appropriate expectation of utility. Wouldn’t you still be arguing that it is a “hope sink”, thus focusing on the utility of the expectation?
Most mathematically-competent commenters agreed that the expected utility of lotteries was bad. Some people disagreed that the utility of expectation was bad, though. Yudkowsky was arguing against these commenters, saying that both expected utility and utility of expectation are bad. The arguments in the post you linked are not the main reasons Yudkowsky does not play the lottery, but rather the arguments that convey the most new information about the lottery (and whatever the lottery is being used to illustrate).