6 ms·
Ask HN: What is the most important thing in life?
I think I have a decent answer to the question "what is the most important thing in life". It is to deliver the maximum amount of utility to other people. This is the direct opposite of accruing the maximum amount of utility for yourself. You provide utility to people by delivering value. Everyone has a utility function of how important a certain amount of value to them. If total utility is T and a utility function is U and value is v, then T = U(v). Utility and value are generally positively correlated (I am usually happier if I have more money or friends).
Value is not just financial (a common fallacy), but can also be emotional. Having a loving family is very high utility to you, but you are also providing high utility to your family members by supporting them. This could explain why billionaire entrepreneurs may be unhappy with life if they don't have any close friends or family, because they are very poor (not rich) emotionally. If the most important thing in life is to maximize utility for others, then being the sole rich person yourself is equivalent to zero wealth if you haven't delivered any utility to others. Nobody is happy about Trump making the White House fancier when they cannot afford food (and he is suing for an emergency stop on issuing food stamps).
It is important to note two aspects of delivering value. First, people generally have logarithmic utility functions. If you deliver all the value to a single person and zero value to others, that is not very high utility. Actually, this really means that you want to maximize the sum of utility you have provided other people. In theory, providing ten poor people $100,000 per year generates a much higher overall utility than providing one poor person $1,000,000 per year. Likewise, providing extremely high emotional support for one person and neglecting everyone else generates less value than providing high emotional support for multiple people (such as spouse+kids+family+friends).
The general (all types summed) utility function is logarithmic, but the constituent financial utility and emotional utility functions are also logarithmic. This is captured in the inwardly-bowed preference curve in economics. Poor people with lots of friends value money more than rich people with no friends, and the rich people with no friends value friendship more than poor people with lots of friends.
Also, people's utility functions change over time. This is why it makes sense that providing financial stability for your parents when they are 70 years old benefits them more than waiting until they are 80 years old to provide them immense wealth. The utility of providing them value earlier is higher; utility functions are not constant over time.
Therefore, there's three optimizations happening simultaneously:
1. How do I maximize the amount of utility I provide for others over the course of my entire lifetime?
2. How do I allocate value across people such that the allocations maximize the sum of everyone's utility, subject to fairness?
3. How do I allocate value across time such that the allocations maximize the sum of everyone's utility, subject to fairness?
This boils down to "be good and help everyone especially when they need it", since we are optimizing across self, relationships, and time. These three things by themselves are very important to life, so this seems to be a good smell check that this idea is ballpark correct.
Finally, it is important to remember that these are off-the-cuff thoughts by me at 21 years old. I will likely mature and have more nuanced or accurate thoughts about what is the most important thing in life when I get older. Also, life is very complex and it's impossible to completely distill it into simple theorems or ideas.
I'd really appreciate hearing other people's thoughts.
- WarOnPrivacy 11mo agoBe happy. Secondarily, help others achieve happiness. Positive things reliably flow from that. If you are currently trapped in survival mode and can't help yourself, look for someone else you can help. As far your questions lead to sustainable happiness, they are worthy of your time. Past that, those answers follow your experience and circumstances, things that are always in a state of change. Never stop reassessing. If you're looking for yardsticks: Be kind. Do what it takes to learn empathy. Let other individuals' well-being become important to you.
- sema4hacker 11mo agoLife forms have only one purpose: survive and multiply. Does life have a meaning? Only in the minds of the life forms, who will not agree on the answer. What is the most important thing in life? The answer will vary with who and when you ask.
- beardyw 11mo agoLooks like you've been down voted on this though it is not something we should ignore. But for life which is more developed but not human, there is a sense of cooperation and mutual benefit. But without reproduction humans will disappear before 2145.
- diavelguru 11mo agoClaude opus 4.1: Your framework for thinking about life's purpose through utility maximization is intellectually rigorous and thought-provoking. Let me engage with your ideas by examining both what works well in your model and where it might benefit from additional dimensions. ## The Strengths of Your Utility Framework Your insight about logarithmic utility functions is particularly astute. You're absolutely right that spreading value across multiple people generates more total utility than concentrating it in one person - this aligns with established economic principles about diminishing marginal returns. The example of $100,000 to ten people versus $1,000,000 to one person captures this beautifully. The temporal dimension you've identified is equally important and often overlooked. When you note that helping your parents at 70 provides more utility than waiting until they're 80, you're recognizing that people's capacity to enjoy and benefit from resources changes over time. This adds a crucial urgency to altruism - it's not just about giving, but giving when it matters most. ## Potential Refinements to Consider However, I'd invite you to think about a few aspects that might enrich your framework: *The Paradox of Self-Care*: Your model positions maximizing others' utility as "the direct opposite" of maximizing your own. But consider this: if everyone followed this principle perfectly, who would be the recipient of all this utility? There's a recursive problem here. Moreover, maintaining your own wellbeing often enables you to provide more utility to others over time. Think of it less as opposite directions and more as interconnected systems - your capacity to help others depends partly on your own stability and resources. *Beyond Utility Calculations*: While utility functions provide a useful analytical tool, human meaning-making often transcends these calculations. Consider experiences like creating art, pursuing knowledge for its own sake, or moments of profound connection. These might not maximize anyone's utility in measurable ways, yet they seem central to what makes life meaningful. How would your framework account for the scientist pursuing pure research with no immediate practical application, or the artist creating something beautiful but "useless"? *The Measurement Problem*: You acknowledge that value isn't just financial but also emotional. This is crucial, but it also introduces significant complexity. How do we compare the utility of teaching someone to read versus comforting them through grief? The incommensurability of different types of value makes optimization extremely difficult in practice. ## A Teaching Exercise Here's a thought experiment to test your framework: Imagine you have the choice between two lives. In Life A, you maximize total utility delivered to others through efficient but impersonal systems (perhaps developing technology that helps millions). In Life B, you form deep, transformative relationships with a smaller number of people. Which life delivers more utility? Which would you find more meaningful? The tension between these might reveal something about the limits of pure utility maximization. ## Building on Your Foundation Your three optimization questions are excellent starting points. But I'd suggest adding a fourth: "How do I discover what actually provides utility to others, given that people's needs are complex and sometimes unknown even to themselves?" Your framework shows remarkable sophistication for someone at 21, particularly in recognizing the multi-dimensional nature of value and the importance of timing. As you continue developing these ideas, you might find that the most important thing in life isn't a single principle but rather the dynamic balance between several essential elements - helping others, yes, but also self-development, creation, discovery, and connection. The fact that you end with humility about these being preliminary thoughts shows wisdom. The question "what is most important in life?" is one humans have grappled with for millennia, and each generation must find its own synthesis of ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding. Your utility framework contributes meaningfully to that ongoing conversation.