A lot of generalities don't really apply to you if you were one of the two other people building Amazon.com in Bezos' garage: https://www.wired.com/1999/03/bezos-3/
It did not have any impact on my curiosity or learning process during the journey I've been on for the last 25 years.
The point is the the presence (or absence) of children is not determinative of your ability to deep-dive. Or so I am claiming.
Nevertheless, I would still like to claim that kids or not is not determinative of your ability to do the deep dive.
I'd also like to think that some distance in the future, it will be raising my daughter will turn out to have been the best possible way I contributed to the world. This software stuff is, in the end, a distraction for the most part (especially when there are/were already so many options in the particular niche that Ardour occupies).
I just did 5 months between contracts. The kids were at school for 6 hours a day. It took a good few weeks for the ideas to start flowing and my curiosity and enthusiasm to build, such that I actually started writing code and enjoyed the process.
It’s something I never experienced before with regular holiday leave, where all-day childcare would usually be involved.
It’s only recently I’ve been in a financial position to be able to create free time like this. It was really expensive though, and I’m unlikely to be doing it again for a few years.