Nicholas—thanks for posting this helpful summary of these empirical studies.
I do find it somewhat sad and alarming that so many EAs seem to be delaying or avoiding having kids, out of fear that this will ‘impair productivity’.
Productivity-maxxing can be a false god—and this is something that’s hard to understand until one becomes a parent.
Just as money sent to charities can vary 100x in terms of actual effectiveness, ‘productivity’ can vary hugely in terms of actual impact in the world.
Lots of academic parents I know (including me) realized, after having kids, that they had been spending huge amounts of time doing stuff that seemed ‘productive’ or ‘fun’ at the time, but that wasn’t actually aligned with their genuine long-term goals and values. Some of this time was spent on self-indulgent status-seeking, credentialism, careerism, workaholism, networking, etc. Some of it was spent on habit-forming but unfulfilling forms of leisure (TV, video games, light reading). Much of it was mating effort to find and retain a sexual partner(s). And some of it was spent on feeling depressed, anxious, etc, wondering about the meaning of life—concerns that tend to evaporate when you start spending more time enjoying the company of your kids, when the ‘meaning of life’ becomes bittersweetly apparent.
Nicholas—thanks for posting this helpful summary of these empirical studies.
I do find it somewhat sad and alarming that so many EAs seem to be delaying or avoiding having kids, out of fear that this will ‘impair productivity’.
Productivity-maxxing can be a false god—and this is something that’s hard to understand until one becomes a parent.
Just as money sent to charities can vary 100x in terms of actual effectiveness, ‘productivity’ can vary hugely in terms of actual impact in the world.
Lots of academic parents I know (including me) realized, after having kids, that they had been spending huge amounts of time doing stuff that seemed ‘productive’ or ‘fun’ at the time, but that wasn’t actually aligned with their genuine long-term goals and values. Some of this time was spent on self-indulgent status-seeking, credentialism, careerism, workaholism, networking, etc. Some of it was spent on habit-forming but unfulfilling forms of leisure (TV, video games, light reading). Much of it was mating effort to find and retain a sexual partner(s). And some of it was spent on feeling depressed, anxious, etc, wondering about the meaning of life—concerns that tend to evaporate when you start spending more time enjoying the company of your kids, when the ‘meaning of life’ becomes bittersweetly apparent.