It’s funny that in the interview episode “Rob Wiblin on how he ended up the way he is” of the 80,000 hours podcast, Misha Saul says that parents don’t have much of an influence on the development of their own children (biodeterminism), but at the same time the whole interview is about important, formative experiences.
The thing the available evidence can show us is that variations in parenting choices don’t explain much variation in outcomes, among the populations studied, which tend to be WEIRD and in the case of adoption studies have passed an explicit bar for estimated parenting quality. This is not the same as “parents don’t have much of an influence on the development of their own children”, which is easily disproven by looking at the 5th percentile parents.
Not quite. The point is that the studies are mostly done on parents with pretty similar styles, so there isn’t enough variation in parenting style to lead to detectable variation in outcomes. It’s the equivalent of studying how water affects plant growth, but giving every plant in the range of 5% of what you think their ideal is, while varying other factors (light, nutrients, plant genetics) tremendously. Your results don’t show that water doesn’t matter for plants, they show that the impact of that small variation in water is lost amongst the noise.
The best book I have ever only read the review of: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids
Seems to have a good summary of evidence for upbringing if you’re interested in the subject.
Thanks. Which evidence for upbringing do you mean in this case? I don’t doubt that everybody is in some sense is “biodetermined”, but it’s ironic that the podcast episode then mainly talks about certain formative experiences the two who talk had when they met each other in highschool, and how Rob was influenced by his mother and his father als role models.
It’s funny that in the interview episode “Rob Wiblin on how he ended up the way he is” of the 80,000 hours podcast, Misha Saul says that parents don’t have much of an influence on the development of their own children (biodeterminism), but at the same time the whole interview is about important, formative experiences.
The thing the available evidence can show us is that variations in parenting choices don’t explain much variation in outcomes, among the populations studied, which tend to be WEIRD and in the case of adoption studies have passed an explicit bar for estimated parenting quality. This is not the same as “parents don’t have much of an influence on the development of their own children”, which is easily disproven by looking at the 5th percentile parents.
I am not sure I exactly understand whst that says. Something like “parenting choices are only important if they are really bad”?
Not quite. The point is that the studies are mostly done on parents with pretty similar styles, so there isn’t enough variation in parenting style to lead to detectable variation in outcomes. It’s the equivalent of studying how water affects plant growth, but giving every plant in the range of 5% of what you think their ideal is, while varying other factors (light, nutrients, plant genetics) tremendously. Your results don’t show that water doesn’t matter for plants, they show that the impact of that small variation in water is lost amongst the noise.
Very interesting, thanks.
The best book I have ever only read the review of: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids Seems to have a good summary of evidence for upbringing if you’re interested in the subject.
Thanks. Which evidence for upbringing do you mean in this case? I don’t doubt that everybody is in some sense is “biodetermined”, but it’s ironic that the podcast episode then mainly talks about certain formative experiences the two who talk had when they met each other in highschool, and how Rob was influenced by his mother and his father als role models.