It’s always good to look at the data, and I admire that. So this is absolutely not a criticism of the post, but just something to consider in the context of this discussion.
But to get the full picture, we also need to factor in the impact the children could have. I have no evidence to support this, but isn’t it likely that children who are born of ethical effective altruists, and who receive loving attention from their parents, are more likely to themselves make a positive impact on the world, compared to “average” children?
And the possible achievements of one child, in one full lifetime, vastly outweigh a small drop in productivity of one parent over a short part of their career.
It seems to me that the most important consideration is to raise moral children and to help them understand the important of altruism, ideally showing by example. Anything that takes away from this feels counterproductive, even if it might briefly moderately increase the parent’s productivity.
There may be exceptions when the parent is working on something extremely important or in a position of extreme influence which the child is unlikely to attain—or if you’re doing something at a uniquely critical time. Maybe it’s not a great idea to take a year of parental leave if you’re a leading AI Governance researcher right now. But these would be quite exceptional.
It’s always good to look at the data, and I admire that. So this is absolutely not a criticism of the post, but just something to consider in the context of this discussion.
But to get the full picture, we also need to factor in the impact the children could have. I have no evidence to support this, but isn’t it likely that children who are born of ethical effective altruists, and who receive loving attention from their parents, are more likely to themselves make a positive impact on the world, compared to “average” children?
And the possible achievements of one child, in one full lifetime, vastly outweigh a small drop in productivity of one parent over a short part of their career.
It seems to me that the most important consideration is to raise moral children and to help them understand the important of altruism, ideally showing by example. Anything that takes away from this feels counterproductive, even if it might briefly moderately increase the parent’s productivity.
There may be exceptions when the parent is working on something extremely important or in a position of extreme influence which the child is unlikely to attain—or if you’re doing something at a uniquely critical time. Maybe it’s not a great idea to take a year of parental leave if you’re a leading AI Governance researcher right now. But these would be quite exceptional.