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The Meta employee is currently 28 years old and works in Reality Labs. What a fantastic way to spend your life until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle d

by oars 4y ago

The Meta employee is currently 28 years old and works in Reality Labs. What a fantastic way to spend your life until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family. I would love to read more coverage or updates about his life in the coming years.

vineyardmike 4y ago
> What a fantastic way to spend your life until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family. I’ve thought about doing this for years, and when Covid made WFH a thing it piqued my interest even more. My partner can’t work on a boat, and we have a dog… and we love to cook… and we have too much stuff. In another life they’d write an article about me While a 28yo with a great job may feel empowered now, I’d be worried about life changes that really impact the plans. What if you lose your job and you can’t find the right one to keep up this very atypical lifestyle? What if your family gets sick? What if you fall in love with a land-lover? What if you want/already had a pet?
spiderice 4y ago
Are people generally waiting until their 40s to start a family? I know people are having kids later nowadays, but I didn't think it was that late. I wouldn't want to still be raising my kids when I'm over 60.
- saberience 4y ago
  Less and less people these days care about having kids. I know so many people in their 30s now choosing to be child free and this lets them do things like the guy in the article. For me personally, I’m also child-free and I’ve lived in 7 different countries now working in tech, saving lots of money, living in various tax free locales etc.
  - nativespecies 4y ago
    It's hard for some people with kids to wrap their minds around those of us who reject the lifestyle. I've overheard a few parent co-workers of mine in the past label being child-free as "selfish." I can't think of one compelling reason to have a child. All the reasons parent friends list off are so unappealing or selfish in their own way, I have to try and not laugh at the irony and lack of self-awareness.
    - Kretinsky 4y ago
      Today's kids are going to pay for your healthcare and pension when you'll be old. On average, 50% of an individual's medical spending is spent during the last 6 months of its life. Add around 30-40 years of retirement income, it's an enormous burden for the society. Even if you're (very) rich and saved for it, the fact that less and less young people are available to create wealth means that the economy becomes inflationary, or has to use immigrants, depleting the other poor countries of their skilled workforce. Unfortunately, a volontary "child-free" or rather childless, it's not a disease, thanks, is a kind of freeloading. Politically it's very destructive, as people without children don't want to fund infrastructure or services for them, aggravating the problem. If you want an example, Italy is a great example of a dying society due to the lack of reproduction and the State' disinterest for it.
      - nativespecies 4y ago
        So much of your argument is just plain wrong I can’t even begin to reply. Our society is not dying because people are having less children. Stop trying to justify your bad decisions and offloading guilt on the rest of us lmao.
        Kretinsky 4y ago
        Which bad decision? I'm very happy to have a kid, and I wish I had one earlier. Who's going to take care of you when you'll be old, either physically or financially? Someone else's kid. Please let me know how this is wrong. As for Italy, there's almost no childcare, no financial help for parents, no infrastructure for families. Pediatrics are quite expensive, and here people have children at an older age, or don't. As many interesting shops/workshops/industries are struggling to find competent workers and their owners will retire, we'll see a massive wave of value and cultural destruction there in the coming decades. And given the wet eyes from the 40-something "childfree" women I see daily when they get a smile from my todler, I'm not sure it's all chill and cool. I see rather pain, suffering and cope. But yeah, ok, don't try to argue man, just keep your convictions.
  - spiderice 4y ago
    > until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family
- rjh29 4y ago
  imo if you've waited until your 40s without having kids, you probably just don't want kids and would be better off without having them.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
Starting a family in your 40s sounds terrible. Not only are you physically in decline, so playing and keeping up with kids is not as much fun, but when your kids have kids, you will be too old to be an asset, and likely to be a liability. Not to mention issues with fertility and increased probabilities of birth defects.
- Auracle 4y ago
  People seem to have an odd sense of fertility time nowadays. My wife was watching some reality dating show last night be a woman on there mentioned wanting 10 children, and hopefully starting to have them once she was 33 or 34. Good luck. Age 35+ is considered a geriatric pregnancy. Above 40 and the risks are quite large, if you even manage to get pregnant. Almost all of us are having kids way too late, biologically speaking.
  - mythhouse 4y ago
    not any more odd than getting sense of the world from from reality dating shows.
    - Auracle 4y ago
      Heh, that's just one data point I've noticed among many. I've heard plenty of people "start thinking" about having children once they're in their mid 30s. Hell, it's rare for most people to get married until their late 20s/early 30s. I'm not sure what we can do about this and it's certainly nothing that should be rushed, but I feel a good segment of the population doesn't realize the downsides of waiting that long either. Everyone wants to be "ready," but the truth is you never will be.
- tibbydudeza 4y ago
  Well Madonna had her second child rather late in life at 42 but then she has nannies, drivers, private schools and access to the best possible healthcare. Kids are a taxing experience not only financially - the myriad school activities, transportation needs, doctor appointments, keeping track of what needs to be done, it is like having another YOU. My parents had me when they were 23, my firstborn when I was 33 and the wife 34 and then two years later, we had the other one.
tbrownaw 4y ago
> hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family. I don't think we've conquered biology to quite the degree needed to make that a sensible path to plan for.

by oars 4y ago

vineyardmike 4y ago

> What a fantastic way to spend your life until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family. I’ve thought about doing this for years, and when Covid made WFH a thing it piqued my interest even more. My partner can’t work on a boat, and we have a dog… and we love to cook… and we have too much stuff. In another life they’d write an article about me While a 28yo with a great job may feel empowered now, I’d be worried about life changes that really impact the plans. What if you lose your job and you can’t find the right one to keep up this very atypical lifestyle? What if your family gets sick? What if you fall in love with a land-lover? What if you want/already had a pet?

spiderice 4y ago

Are people generally waiting until their 40s to start a family? I know people are having kids later nowadays, but I didn't think it was that late. I wouldn't want to still be raising my kids when I'm over 60.

saberience 4y ago
Less and less people these days care about having kids. I know so many people in their 30s now choosing to be child free and this lets them do things like the guy in the article. For me personally, I’m also child-free and I’ve lived in 7 different countries now working in tech, saving lots of money, living in various tax free locales etc.
- nativespecies 4y ago
  It's hard for some people with kids to wrap their minds around those of us who reject the lifestyle. I've overheard a few parent co-workers of mine in the past label being child-free as "selfish." I can't think of one compelling reason to have a child. All the reasons parent friends list off are so unappealing or selfish in their own way, I have to try and not laugh at the irony and lack of self-awareness.
  - Kretinsky 4y ago
    Today's kids are going to pay for your healthcare and pension when you'll be old. On average, 50% of an individual's medical spending is spent during the last 6 months of its life. Add around 30-40 years of retirement income, it's an enormous burden for the society. Even if you're (very) rich and saved for it, the fact that less and less young people are available to create wealth means that the economy becomes inflationary, or has to use immigrants, depleting the other poor countries of their skilled workforce. Unfortunately, a volontary "child-free" or rather childless, it's not a disease, thanks, is a kind of freeloading. Politically it's very destructive, as people without children don't want to fund infrastructure or services for them, aggravating the problem. If you want an example, Italy is a great example of a dying society due to the lack of reproduction and the State' disinterest for it.
    - nativespecies 4y ago
      So much of your argument is just plain wrong I can’t even begin to reply. Our society is not dying because people are having less children. Stop trying to justify your bad decisions and offloading guilt on the rest of us lmao.
      - Kretinsky 4y ago
        Which bad decision? I'm very happy to have a kid, and I wish I had one earlier. Who's going to take care of you when you'll be old, either physically or financially? Someone else's kid. Please let me know how this is wrong. As for Italy, there's almost no childcare, no financial help for parents, no infrastructure for families. Pediatrics are quite expensive, and here people have children at an older age, or don't. As many interesting shops/workshops/industries are struggling to find competent workers and their owners will retire, we'll see a massive wave of value and cultural destruction there in the coming decades. And given the wet eyes from the 40-something "childfree" women I see daily when they get a smile from my todler, I'm not sure it's all chill and cool. I see rather pain, suffering and cope. But yeah, ok, don't try to argue man, just keep your convictions.
- spiderice 4y ago
  > until you hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family
rjh29 4y ago
imo if you've waited until your 40s without having kids, you probably just don't want kids and would be better off without having them.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

Starting a family in your 40s sounds terrible. Not only are you physically in decline, so playing and keeping up with kids is not as much fun, but when your kids have kids, you will be too old to be an asset, and likely to be a liability. Not to mention issues with fertility and increased probabilities of birth defects.

Auracle 4y ago
People seem to have an odd sense of fertility time nowadays. My wife was watching some reality dating show last night be a woman on there mentioned wanting 10 children, and hopefully starting to have them once she was 33 or 34. Good luck. Age 35+ is considered a geriatric pregnancy. Above 40 and the risks are quite large, if you even manage to get pregnant. Almost all of us are having kids way too late, biologically speaking.
- mythhouse 4y ago
  not any more odd than getting sense of the world from from reality dating shows.
  - Auracle 4y ago
    Heh, that's just one data point I've noticed among many. I've heard plenty of people "start thinking" about having children once they're in their mid 30s. Hell, it's rare for most people to get married until their late 20s/early 30s. I'm not sure what we can do about this and it's certainly nothing that should be rushed, but I feel a good segment of the population doesn't realize the downsides of waiting that long either. Everyone wants to be "ready," but the truth is you never will be.
tibbydudeza 4y ago
Well Madonna had her second child rather late in life at 42 but then she has nannies, drivers, private schools and access to the best possible healthcare. Kids are a taxing experience not only financially - the myriad school activities, transportation needs, doctor appointments, keeping track of what needs to be done, it is like having another YOU. My parents had me when they were 23, my firstborn when I was 33 and the wife 34 and then two years later, we had the other one.

tbrownaw 4y ago

> hit your 40s and are ready to settle down and start a family. I don't think we've conquered biology to quite the degree needed to make that a sensible path to plan for.