What is this strange bizarre heroism around having kids? I don't get what the big deal is. People have been reproducing for thousands of years without writing self eulogizing blogs about how heroic they are. Have kids if you want to or don't, you are not some kind of martyr for reproducing.
I've seen women who go to do hard labor in rice fields the following day of giving birth, its business as usual.
What is this strange bizarre heroism around founding companies? I don't get what the big deal is. People have been doing business at least since we've had a market economy, centuries at least if not millenia, without writing self-eulogizing blogs about how heroic they are. Found a company if you want or don't, you are not some kind of martyr for going into business.
When you look at it from a distance, everything we do is meaningless. People have done things like it before, people will do things that eclipse it in the future, and there is some person out there who will shit on you for doing it. That doesn't mean that it isn't meaningful up close, to some segment of the population going through similar struggles. The fact that this story is #2 on HN right now is indication that some segment of the readership here found it interesting, even if you didn't.
I hate to be this person, but this is HN, not /r/childfree.
The vast majority of people choose to have a family life, and it's not easy. It doesn't mean people should be celebrated for their choices, but it does mean that discussions about the pros, cons, and ways to make it work/ways it doesn't work are relevant for a lot of people.
There is this annoying "love your children" fad that has preoccupied a small number of societies for the past few hundred years, and along with it a silly notion that one should "spend time" with his or her offspring.
If the intention of the post were to boast of heroism, then you're right to point out that simply reproducing doesn't make one better than another. To me however, it seems he meant to inspire others in a similar situation who want to do what he did, but are doubtful it could work.
Some people find it difficult to believe they can accomplish something until it's been done by someone else. His blog post is great inspiration for those who weren't sure it was possible, and great reassurance for those who knew it was possible but had few examples to relate to.
I sort of get where you're coming from, I remember being younger and feeling annoyance at parents acting like their time away from work was more important than everyone else's
That's said, seems silly to bring a person into the world if you're not going to devote the resources (time) needed to insure that that person thrives
and its seems like a sufficient big enough deal that someone can devote a blog post to how they're going to go about trying to do that
The blog post is hardly self-eulogizing. It's written as advice to other people who are going to try to do two non-trivial things at once and maintain a balance. You decide to pick on only one of the hard things, act as if the writer only mentioned that one thing, and then act as if the writer asked for praise for doing the one hard thing.
I've seen women who go to do hard labor in rice fields the following day of giving birth, its business as usual.
And heroic. We have a baby, but I can't imagine the pain my wife had to go through. Even if it happens to a substantial part of the population, it's still heroic.
Well, there's a point at which the word 'hero' won't make sense anymore if you use it this way.
Not having kids is a heroic thing to do since it's quite a brave decision not knowing how the older you thinks.
Leaving kids and working all the time is heroic because you are keeping many people in your company employed and you are selflessly working for their happiness.
Taking care of kids and not working is heroic because you said screw you to the corporate world.
And so on. See my point? It becomes like everyone is 'special'.
I've seen women who go to do hard labor in rice fields the following day of giving birth, its business as usual.