{"items": [{"author": "Gianna", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=382746291794862", "anchor": "fb-382746291794862", "service": "fb", "text": "As usual, big issues like this are more complicated in reality than newspaper headlines generally like to admit.", "timestamp": "1349274583"}, {"author": "Gianna", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=382747075128117", "anchor": "fb-382747075128117", "service": "fb", "text": "Also...isn't just asking about \"happiness\" potentially missing the point? I thought I remembered reading something at one point that said that while having kids didn't make you happier, it did make you more content - so there might be some value to asking if happiness is really the metric we want to measure...or at least, I would encourage individuals to ask themselves that.", "timestamp": "1349274758"}, {"author": "Mac", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=382757675127057", "anchor": "fb-382757675127057", "service": "fb", "text": "OK. Some things you cannot be rational about: Should I marry this person? How much fun is sex and why? Why do I play music? Should I have children? If these questions aren't already answered in your soul, then rationality only gives you as much information as a newspaper article. Some factors that are required in having kids: Am I just nuts about the person with whom I would have this third person? Can WE afford kids, both financially and emotionally? Can I overcome the shortcomings I perceive in my own upbringing? (Do I actually perceive all the important shortcomings?) People think that parenting is on the job training. Nope. We are imprinted on the parenting _we_ received. \"This situation gets _this_ response!\" And those responses are hopefully good ones. Rationality is simply the wrong tool to bring to this decision. Intuition or gut feel are where you get the answer. Speaking personally, it's the most rewarding thing that ever happened in my life. But that's not to say it's for everybody, or at all times.", "timestamp": "1349277179"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=382787021790789", "anchor": "fb-382787021790789", "service": "fb", "text": "@Gianna: \"isn't just asking about 'happiness' potentially missing the point?\"
I'm saying \"happiness\" but if you look at the survey questions (which I quote) they're a little more about satisfaction and well-being.", "timestamp": "1349283640"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/106120852580068301475", "anchor": "gp-1349299598758", "service": "gp", "text": "I'd expect that a major problem in studying this for practical purposes is not just \"how parenting affects your happiness varies widely by demographics\", but that it would vary widely from individual to individual in very idiosyncratic (but possibly predictable -- e.g., I predict I would be much less happy) ways.", "timestamp": 1349299598}, {"author": "Jesper", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=382865311782960", "anchor": "fb-382865311782960", "service": "fb", "text": "Ah, I was just going to rise that issue from another direction. To me it seems potentially misleading to phrase this data as \"happiness\" data since it is mostly about life satisfaction (contentness) rather than how people feel (positive and negative affect). I would guess when most people talk about \"happiness\" they mean something like the latter. (of course this is a terminological issue which can be avoided by tabooing the term \"happiness\"). This is particularly relevant since (at least according to studies referred by Kahneman and others) the correlation between affect and life satisfaction is at best moderate (around 0.4 I think).", "timestamp": "1349303503"}, {"author": "Adam Yie", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/114873051319510815414", "anchor": "gp-1349359746448", "service": "gp", "text": "echoing \n@David Chudzicki\n\u00a0above, do you and/or\u00a0\n@Julia\n\u00a0find these studies useful?\n
\n
\n(taking after some of the lw replies - ignore me if offbase)", "timestamp": 1349359746}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1349370441540", "service": "gp", "text": "@Adam Yie\n\u00a0We're probably going to have kids regardless. \u00a0The evidence is much too weak to influence decisions much.", "timestamp": 1349370441}, {"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=383221028414055", "anchor": "fb-383221028414055", "service": "fb", "text": "Walker, some of the considerations you list sound suspiciously...rational.", "timestamp": "1349402558"}, {"author": "Mac", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/382736188462539?comment_id=383253608410797", "anchor": "fb-383253608410797", "service": "fb", "text": "lol Guilty!", "timestamp": "1349411328"}]}