The Family Firm

Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.

The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years is the third book in Brown University economist Emily Oster's ParentData series, and it couldn't have dropped at a better time. Parents of young children are faced with a seemingly endless series of tough high-stakes choices these days.

Oster—who also runs a massive data collection project about COVID-19 in schools—parses studies on sleep, summer camp, and smartphones with her usual accessible flair, offering interpretations that are nuanced, but not to the point of paralysis.

In this installment, Oster emphasizes that following the science doesn't happen in a vacuum; context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter. There isn't one right answer, and asking the correct question is at least as important as gathering good data.

Comments

[Cyto]

"asking the correct question"

This is the key to the universe. It was something I learned as a graduate student... Scientists spend years trying to find the right question... Then finding the answer is usually comparatively trivial.

When I transitioned to business and software development, it became clear that this was not common knowledge or practice. People spend a lot of time answering the wrong question.

If you spend a lot of time up front dissecting the business requirements and the business model, you can usually reformulate the problem into something much simpler and with much broader application and benefit.

I heard Elon Musk describe something related as "the best part is no part". Figuring out how to solve problems by going back to the original objective can often provide insights that cut through the existing assumptions and provide mich easier, cheaper and more effective solutions.

[Mary M. Strait]

These are 2 pay checks $78367 and $87367. that i received in last 2 months. I am very happy that i can make thousands in my part time and now i am enjoying my life.ghj Everybody can do this and earn lots of dollars from home in very short time period. Your Success is one step away Click Below Webpage…..

Just visit this website now…… READ MORE

[Priscilla Andrews]

Seriously I don’t know why more people haven’t tried this, I work two shifts, 2 hours in the day and 2 in the evening…FK And i get surly a check of $12600 what’s awesome is I m working from home so I get more time with my kids.

Try it, you won’t regret it!……< VISIT HERE

[Chumby]

What happens when a hyphenated last name person marries a hyphenated last name person?

[Gray_Jay]

Are they Spanish? Give the female children her name, the male children his? Rocheambeau?

Cynically, at current replacement fertility levels for middle-class and up white people than indulge in such things, it's not a problem that usually comes up...