Scott Alexander

Welcome to the Astral Codex X podcast for the 15th of May 2025.

Title, Book Review, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids.

This is an audio version of Astral Codex X's Scott Alexander's Substack.

If you like it, you can subscribe at astralcodex10.substack.com.

Brian Kaplan's Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids is like the Bible.

You already know what it says.

You've already decided whether you believe it or not.

Do you really have to read it all the way through?

But when you're going through a rough patch in your life, sometimes it helps to pick up a Bible and look for pearls of forgotten wisdom.

That's where I am now.

Having twins is a lot of work.

My wife does most of it.

My nanny does most of what's left.

Even so, the remaining few hours a day leave me exhausted.

I decided to read the canonical book on how having kids is easier and more fun than you think to see if maybe I was overdoing something.

After many trials, tribulations, false starts, grabs, shrieks, and attacks of opportunity... Here's a photograph.

It shows the top of Scott's head, hidden behind the book, selfish reasons to have more kids.

He's lying back and reclining on a couch, with his feet crossed casually over each other.

One child is draped across his lap and appears to be staring at the camera.

The other one seems to have got Scott's attention by banging on a toy or otherwise grabbing a toy and appears to be in the process of perhaps hurling it off the couch and has obviously captured Scott's attention as he's reaching out with his hand.