I think if I were to optimise for my values correctly then the vast majority of the time I'm not doing anything that looks like optimising, so that tracks
maybe it’s the interplay between different agents in the system, with their distinct values and needs? Optimizing sounds a lot like forcing your will upon the world, what I’m looking for is more of an alignment
could easily get another few threads out of the idea, go through the whole western intellectual tradition and just name which ones didn’t have children when they had their most important ideas or ever, maybe do the same for the history of christianity, could do numbers
branch out from there to a patreon, a podcast, a book deal, bam, next thing you know you’ve founded an entire subdiscipline of critical theory, you’re overturning the work of childless men left and right, ushering in a golden age of people listening to good fathers and mothers