focusing on higher education in the middling twenties and then after fifty spending most time on grandchildren whose parents followed the same patter and focus their late 20s and 30s on other goals.

Proposed algorithm:

1. Reproduce, early childcare
2. Higher education (informal or formal)
3. Other goals
4. Raise multiple pre-teen/early-teen kids

Step one ends at about the early 20s, just as cognitive performance peaks. Still leaving time to make use of it for other achievements in the middling 20s. The obvious exception is really hard math, but fortunately most people in a viable population don't need to deal with really hard math.

Step three builds up resources and acheives other goals you estimate you won't be able to acheive after step four.

Step four raise your grandchildren or if you don't have those someone else's pre-teen/early-teen kids.

Current algorithm (for the demographic many LWers find themselves belonging to):

1. Higher education (formal)
2. Other goals
3. Reproduce, maybe sort of
4. Raise one or two teen kids maybe

I would argue that the quality of childcare isn't significantly diminished (if it is at all). There is indeed some opportunity cost here since is sub optimally employed cognitive horsepower. But the neat trick is that the new algorithm increases available cognitive horsepower every generation, while perhaps doubling or even tripling the number of highly trained rationalists. Also raising small children may leave you physically exhausted and be a time sink, but if you are provided resources by your parents or a community, that still leaves plenty of time to familiarize yourself with what you'll be doing in step two or even get the higher education done with. If parental funds are unavailable or insufficient there is work you can do to help cover the shortfall.

People can still do horizontal meme and mindware transmition with minimal losses in efficacy during "other goal" period or after they are done with phase four. Wasting peak reproductive time for that, is a really big waste of resources unless you are that rare exceptional person that started building the bedrock of the community.