This is a great formalization of a three-resource model—time, money and mental energy—which clearly gives much better answers than a two-resource model of only time and money in cases where mental energy is a relevant resource, which is often true.
Despite that, it still feels woefully incomplete/simplified, given how important it is to get something like this right. One of these is that there are lots of resources (N is large) and trading is not cost-less between them; you have to draw the line somewhere, however, and can draw it as needed by a given exercise. I think more importantly than that, it comes down to the fact that while money is fungible and savable, time and mental energy (and many other key resources) aren’t. Resources that are use-it-or-lose-it, but vital to pretty much everything, like time, have highly variable marginal value, which makes the calculations very different than described in the paper. I’m going to try and expand/formalize this concept more.
I agree that it is a big simplification, but I don’t know how much of a practical problem that is, given that a lot of people can get things wrong that would be fixable even by the two-resource model. Still, I fully support having a range of different models of different complexities!
I put down the first of my thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/ok3loj7. If I get things where I want them I may post it to LW or turn it into a sequence.
This is a great formalization of a three-resource model—time, money and mental energy—which clearly gives much better answers than a two-resource model of only time and money in cases where mental energy is a relevant resource, which is often true.
Despite that, it still feels woefully incomplete/simplified, given how important it is to get something like this right. One of these is that there are lots of resources (N is large) and trading is not cost-less between them; you have to draw the line somewhere, however, and can draw it as needed by a given exercise. I think more importantly than that, it comes down to the fact that while money is fungible and savable, time and mental energy (and many other key resources) aren’t. Resources that are use-it-or-lose-it, but vital to pretty much everything, like time, have highly variable marginal value, which makes the calculations very different than described in the paper. I’m going to try and expand/formalize this concept more.
Thanks, I’d love to see what you come up.
I agree that it is a big simplification, but I don’t know how much of a practical problem that is, given that a lot of people can get things wrong that would be fixable even by the two-resource model. Still, I fully support having a range of different models of different complexities!
I put down the first of my thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/ok3loj7. If I get things where I want them I may post it to LW or turn it into a sequence.
Thanks. I wasn’t entirely sure whether you were aiming at improving decision-making or at game design, but it was interesting either way!
By the way, your link is doubly(!) broken. This should work.