juliawise comments on Review: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids - Less Wrong

17 Post author: jsalvatier 29 May 2012 06:00PM

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Comment author: juliawise 29 May 2012 02:45:03AM 3 points [-]

Having a kid who plays violin is more about the parent's status than the kid's. This may help the kid learn to eventually jockey for status as adults. But I have to question how much that improves their quality of life, if that's what we care about.

Comment author: Emile 29 May 2012 08:55:40AM 5 points [-]

I wouldn't say "Jockey for status" as much as "give him tastes and references that make it easier for him to come off as high status / associate with high-status people" (those might be ways of saying the same things, but "jockeying" calls to mind dominance and put-downs).

I expect it would improve their quality of life, all else being equal, but I don't know if Violin lessons would be a good way to improve one's status (probably far from the best one). I agree it's probably mostly about the parent's status, and the kind of kids the peers wants their kid to associate with.