[Linkpost] “Kids or No Kids” by KidsOrNoKids

This post summarizes how my partner and I decided whether to have children or not. We spent hundreds of hours on this decision and hope to save others part of that time. We found it very useful to read the thoughts of people who share significant parts of our values on the topic and thus want to "pay it forward" by writing this up. In the end, we decided to have children; our son is four months old now and we’re very happy with how we made the decision and with how our lives are now (through a combination of sheer luck and good planning). It was a very narrow and very tough decision though.Both of us care a lot about having a positive impact on the world and our jobs are the main way we expect to have an impact (through direct work and/or earning to give). As a [...] ---Outline:(01:35) Process - how we decided(04:25) Content - considerations we used(04:29) Impact considerations(04:33) Time(07:29) Sleep(10:45) Money(11:33) Flexibility(12:07) Effects on one's community(13:07) Falling out of the heavy tail(13:38) The childrens impact(14:17) Value drift(14:44) Personal life worthiness or happiness considerations(14:49) Health(18:06) Social/soft factors(20:49) Overarching considerations--- First published: November 12th, 2023 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YYnjHt5YzuHSH7oRR/kids-or-no-kids Linkpost URL:https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3MzDMBk4DZrbYePJS/kids-or-no-kids --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.