Five Practical Tips to Parenting, from a Quantitative Drug Developer

Andy Stein on parenting with the ideas of drug development

Notes on Andy Stein’s Medium post: uncertainty, variability and biomarkers, borrowed from quantitative drug development and applied to raising children.

Five Practical Tips to Parenting, from a Quantitative Drug Developer, by Andy Stein on Medium, 4 October 2021.

Much of how a child turns out is outside a parent’s control, so the post recommends being present, trying things and watching a few signals. It draws on Bryan Caplan’s Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, Emily Oster’s Cribsheet and the US Air Force’s discovery of the flaw of averages.

1. Uncertainty and lack of control. Genetics and environment decide much of the outcome, and children tend to turn out like their genetic parents. The best a parent can do is be present, love and listen.
2. Variability. No child is average in every respect, so a study about the average child is a starting point. Try things and keep what works.
3. Biomarkers. Among all the rules and opinions, what a parent needs is a signal that something is really wrong. A baby whose weight stays within reasonable bounds is almost certainly well nourished.
4. Childhood wounding is necessary. Leaving abuse aside, no parent meets every want and need, and overprotection makes a wound of its own.
5. Memories can be influenced. How children remember their parents depends largely on how loving, communicative and conflict-prone the family was.