This is like saying: "I have a time-intense hobby that I prefer over working too much for you.".
I think the maybe reasonable counter-argument against your sentence would be that while you personally do not have to value something like raising kids above your work, others very well might and do and there is nothing absurd or weird about that. Your framing betrays a certain kind of worldview where “work” is real and everything else is a mere hobby, a worldview that might be valid for certain people but is certainly not universal.
I don't think work per se is everything. But working on world-changing things is.
At least concerning the situation in Germany, where there is compulsary school with a compulsary curriculum (vulgo: 18-19 years of brainwashing), I am working a lot time in the evening on an alternative curriculum (currently focusing on computer science topics since this is something I am hopefully knowledgable about) that enables people to deprogram themselves from this kind of brainwashing to enable them to develop their intellectual potential so that they can begin to work on world-changing things. A lot of highly gifted people already asked me multiple times when they can finally read the first text of my planned series (they are really eager for it) - unluckily there is still so much to do even on the first text.
So the first thing that we should solve is to prepare a curriculum that does not completely brainwash our children. Only when this problem is solved, we can begin to think about how we can set aside some time for them.
You work to live, not the other way around.
> You work to live, not the other way around.
At least if you work in (academic) research, working to live simply does not work [pun intended]. The things that you work on in this area are the really important things in life.
Indeed - and that is why you should be very cautious to give birth to children; in particular if you have career plans.
This false dichotomy cuts to the heart of a lot of gender and racial diversity issues that plague the workplace in the US.
The sooner tech companies learn to embrace and work with this very basic fact, the better.
"Sure, I'll consider abandoning all priorities (i.e. social life) and/or putting off others (kids) -- and maybe even take minor risks on my health -- if you you're able to appropriate compensation."
Guess what, though? In the vast majority of cases -- even when we're talking about the bulge-bracket FAANG salaries occasionally gloated about in these and other parts -- simply don't come anywhere close enough to providing that level of compensation.
All of their pretensions to the contrary.
