What it Means to be More Rational

In my previous post, It’s Not Easy Being Rational, I said that being irrational meant that you behaved contrary to your utility function. Following this line of logic, being rational would mean that you behaved in accordance with your preferences i.e. you did what you wanted to do. This brings up an important question: can one be more rational than another without both being irrational? If both of you did what you wanted to do, how can one be more rational than the other? Yes, allow me to demonstrate.

Being a rational agent requires a purpose or direction. In this case, the purpose is to maximize utility in the most desirable way possible. Once your preferences are determined, there exist a theoretical set of actions that will lead you to maximizing your utility function in the most desirable way. If you currently desire a coke from the fridge, there exists a set of actions that will satisfy this demand in the most desirable way. (It is important to understand that you may not have the prerequisite knowledge to know what these set of actions are).

Assume that the optimal action set includes: getting out of your chair, walk slowly not to wake up the dog, say ‘hi’ to grandma, open the fridge, grab the coke and run back to your room. The closer you in executing this theoretical optimal set of actions, the more rational you are. Unfortunately, when you assess your strategy profiles, you don’t include the action of saying ‘hi’ to grandma. You know that grandma always asks you what you are doing if you don’t say ‘hi’ and you know she doesn’t like you drinking coke. You end up having a quarrel with grandma and fail to execute the optimal set of actions.

Part of being more rational means that you can better predict the consequences of your actions. It is impossible to predict with 100% accuracy (all the time), but the closer to 100% the more rational. After predicting each action’s respective outcome, you must decide which outcomes are most desirable. Of course, the last step would be to follow through with the action set you’ve devised for yourself. Regarding the coke example, if you were more rational, you would have figured out that grandma needed a genuine ‘hi’ from you.

The moral of the story: strive to be more rational, you’ll only be benefiting yourself.