So, a time-constrained ambitious dad spends his time on HN and reads extensive biographies.

Good luck :)

yeah can we talk about how icky elon musk paying women to artificially inseminate them is? and ONLY selecting male embryos?

Be a parent, ffs. And be it, 100%. Be it 500%.

Having kids is easily and by a huge distance the very best thing you can “build”. It’s the best project you’ll ever make.

If you can find a way to run a cool thing on the side then great. I’ve been lucky, or something, and I have. And I love it.

But my kids are a trillion times more important. And now they’re 21 and 19 I can live knowing that I’ve launched the best couple of projects in the world.

The IPO in my parental project arrived and stocks are doing well :-)

My career plateaued as soon as I had kids. I don't regret it, but companies definitely don't promote people with kids as rapidly, almost as if they know they have extra bargaining power over them because they have dependents to worry about.

Nailed it.

Great post Nicholas.

I’d look outside Silicon Valley for examples of how to do this well.

Outside of the big coastal cities, raising kids and building a career aren’t treated as competing ambitions. They’re just what people do.

Weekday dinners? Pff.. I'm 100x better parent, and probably 100x less productive. But my employer is happy with me, I'm happy too, and my wife and kids too. So happy, I do not need to write articles about it.

Beat that

Amen brother.

…or just don’t have kids. Reproducing is the ultimate in self-centeredness. It’s entirely optional.

Replace having kids in this article with rebuilding a vintage engine from scratch in your garage to see how ridiculous this attitude is.

Do one thing and do it well.

Great parents are invisible.