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Comment by marshray | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes I think I envy people who can think like you do.

But I find people who know what it means to be irrational are far more interesting.

Frankly there are many ways you can be irrational. Your thoughts, your actions, your creations. But don't do that at the expense of your family. If you want to take too much risk, don't start a family, heck you can even stop at 1 kid to manage risk.

You forfeit the freedom to be irrational when you have a child, let alone four of them.

100x this.

On a tangentially related note, what is the moral philosophy around having children? I'm not familiar with this area at all. Is having children generally considered a (or close to) a human right? Because it seems a lot of discussion about social policy (especially minimum wage) revolves around the assumption of supporting more than just oneself.

As a parent of 6, I call bullshit.

I want my kids to take risks. I want them to challenge the status quo. I want them to think for themselves. I want them to appreciate the irrational.

I don't care if they get an xbox for Christmas.

I'm pretty sure we're discussing taking risks that could move your kids into foster care because you're homeless, not the risk of not being able to afford an Xbox.

No we are not. It might be rough while the dad gets a job, but people don't go from startup founder to homeless.

... said jaxn in the thread about the guy whose home is being foreclosed upon because he lost his credit and mortgage money in a gamble.

I don't know how many kids you have or how many failed startups you have had, but I have some very relevant experience here. Give it 3 months and ask the OP if he ended up homeless.

The fact that he has 3+ kids and a wife seems to be relevant now that the start up has failed. So, it should have definitely been taken into consideration at the beginning.

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