DISQUS

I would absolutely not think twice about the day you spent with your son and family being a "not-wealth-building" day. In my mind, there are two reasons why:
(1) As Emily (above, in another comment) has already indicated, you are building up wealth precisely in order that you may be able to enjoy more such days. You should certainly take the time to remind yourself of what this feels like and why it's worth it. Also, you will likely work harder and more willingly when you do work now, having taken the time to really relax and recharge.
(2) You do yourself a massive disservice (I think behavior psychology confirms this) when you go back and re-evaluate hedonic, pleasurable pursuits in light of several other goals that you "ought" to have been pursuing. As a result, you actually detract from whatver relaxation or re-charging of the batteries that you accomplished when you were out enjoying yourself. In other words, try not to think along these lines.

Of course, this is qualified by the fact that you shouldn't keep doing this all the time, and one should certainly re-evaluate big (and perhaps flippant) purchases in terms of whether they served their purposes.

One way to get around this issue is to mentally pre-plan "time off" days, both in terms of which calendar days you will have off, as well as a certain bank of "goofing-off time" that you can draw on from time to time. Either way, unless it's the day that you pitch your big idea to the VC that's most likely to fund you, taking a day off when you can coordinate with friends and family to actually have a good time is probably a complete non-issue. Enjoy it, smile, and return to work the next day feeling refreshed.

This is all, of course, just my opinion. Nice post, though! Just don't think too much/post about these things if doing so starts to detract from the time you spend with family!

I completely agree!! However, there may be potential for several Cambrian explosions in different areas of our lives. For instance, whatever it was that clicked in your mind that caused you to lose a lot of weight could also be considered a Cambrian explosion (I certainly hope it is in my case, because I'm trying to do very much the same thing!).

Another interesting thing about Cambrian explosions is that you don't necessarily realize they're happening when they happen, but with the benefit of time, you see that something clearly changed a behavior or mindset or way of thinking to create the result. It is especially gratifying if the result is something you'd been working towards to begin with! Quite often, then, the progression goes something like this:
Try -- Fail -- Try -- Fail -- Try -- Succeed Part Way -- Fail -- Try -- Aahhh!

Having worked in a big consulting firm (and having some long-term independent consulting ambitions of my own) I really like your pro and con points lists!! I already know (and agree with!) some of them, but there's a lot of new stuff here for me as well.
BTW -- love the photo of Memorial Drive!

This is only my opinion -- and I don't have any kids -- so feel free to discount it, but here goes...: I'd say, let it go FOR NOW.

I'm 29 now. When I think back to the most formative events/processes in my life, I think back to conversations with my parents about politics, or love, or "how to be a better person" starting around the age of 6 or 8 onwards. Frankly, I have no idea what happened before then. I know that I may have been exposed to some holding hands and praying, etc., and I had to go through enough religious education (Christian, as it happens) as a teenager to successfully turn me off religious practice, but keep an interest in reading the Bible and other religious texts in my own time (culturally, I'm Hindu).

I think conversations with parents are crucial. You get to transmit your way of thinking in a way that no teacher, coach, or outside agent possibly can. It's an inheritance of sorts, and one that I'm very proud of in my own case. But to get back to the point, I don't think Catholic daycare is going to do anything, as long as the daycare itself is good and safe.

I completely agree -- although, I use a weekly planner Moleskine that gives me space to scribble on one side, and place to slot in "to-dos" by day on the other side. I've found this works well. Right now, I'm in graduate school, so the repeated reminders aren't really necessary, because the important things are not urgent and the urgent things, quite often, may not be important! On the other hand, I'll experiment with Google Calendar to see if it's helpful.... Thanks for the post!

Truer words have never been written: "Try to think of life as a series of experiences you WANT". I've decided I'm going to keep a set of stickies in Outlook with things like this in them.

Thank you!