@cshentrup i'm not talking about a game. i'm talking about how people with little to lose take very large risks, even where the expected financial value of the risk net of the cost of taking it seems negative, because the upside of the right-hand tail is worth more than left side hurts. that's convex utility.

@cshentrup kids who become drug dealers to escape shitty circumstances, even when the modal outcome is you go to jail for a long time and the expected value is negative, are demonstrating convex utility.

@cshentrup (to be clear about what is and isn't "orthodox", this take on the increasing marginal utilities over some regions near poverty is NOT a consensus view within economics, though it is debated and discussed. my description of utility, welfare, and the distinction between is orthodox and uncontroversial.)