[philh]

If the utility function of money was superlinear (has a steeper slope the more you have) this would make sense.

But since you're a human being, I'm fairly confident that your utility function is sublinear (has a shallower slope the more you have). Playing for variance doesn't make sense in this case.

[tomp]

I'd say that utility of money is a sublinear functions only for small amounts of money. When you get into the range of "never having to work again" or "can build my own rocket company", then the utility of money can quickly become superlinear (c.f. the productivity of the team is more than the sum of productivity of individuals).

[dllthomas]

I think the parent claiming to value the variance first-order (experienced as "excitement").