Yes, of course you can add utility differences. Utilities form an affine space, their differences lie in the vector space acting on this affine space.
I disagree that discussion of utilities is normally discussion of utility differences, but, whatever. I’m not going to spend any more karma arguing over this. Regardless, it is important to recognize the difference between the two and keep the distinction clear, just as it is with positions in time vs. durations, positions vs. displacements, etc.
If people are only going to talk about utility differences rather than utilities, then sure, “utils” is fine. I feel like I’ve seen enough cases of trying to add utilities (not utility differences) that I think this is a bad idea, but, whatever; I’m not going to argue about that. (And it is possible I misunderstood what they were saying because it didn’t occur to me that maybe they meant utility differences and I wasn’t trying to read charitably. If that is the case, that might explain why some people thought my suggestion was so unnecessary...)
Yes, of course you can add utility differences. Utilities form an affine space, their differences lie in the vector space acting on this affine space.
I disagree that discussion of utilities is normally discussion of utility differences, but, whatever. I’m not going to spend any more karma arguing over this. Regardless, it is important to recognize the difference between the two and keep the distinction clear, just as it is with positions in time vs. durations, positions vs. displacements, etc.
If people are only going to talk about utility differences rather than utilities, then sure, “utils” is fine. I feel like I’ve seen enough cases of trying to add utilities (not utility differences) that I think this is a bad idea, but, whatever; I’m not going to argue about that. (And it is possible I misunderstood what they were saying because it didn’t occur to me that maybe they meant utility differences and I wasn’t trying to read charitably. If that is the case, that might explain why some people thought my suggestion was so unnecessary...)