overduebook

Not a question, but I work at Kiva.org and I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the amazing work you've done with Nerdfighters. I don't think you realize what a big deal you guys are, how much publicity you've given us, and (most importantly, duh) what a change you've made in the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you for using your influence to turn your audience outward, and for inspiring so many people to lend a helping hand to others around the world. As far as I'm concerned, no matter how wonderful your books are, the Nerdfighters lending team is your real legacy. :)

Everybody's giving you shit for this comment even as the OP writes (and is heavily upvoted for) comments like this:

I lost all this weight and people that knew me back in high school were ever so much more nicer. Girls were asking me out on dates when they rejected me back in the day. Its great actually. I get to see how superficial some people are and I can act accordingly...

Reminds me of every discussion of the friend zone, ever, where dudes conveniently forget about the unattractive women that they're rejecting while they whine about those hot bitches.

There are a number of reasons, most of which have to do with the awful setup of the current adoption process. And frankly, a lot of the kids up for adoption are "undesirable" - usually because they aren't infants and they aren't white. (Please understand that I'm not endorsing that judgment.) It can cost years and years and thousands of dollars which could otherwise be spent on raising a child. And there's always the fear that the birth mother or surrogate will back out at the last minute.

I was just reading about this in Stephen Pinker's <i>The Better Angels of Our Nature</i> where he makes the argument that it's essentially a rational period of evaluation. Is there something wrong with the child? Do you have the resources to support it? Most of human civilization is marked with infanticide, and this period before bonding was the time to make the decision. Even if the child represents the propagation of your DNA, evolutionarily speaking it might still be a rational decision, if raising the child would impact your ability to reproduce in the future, or take time and care away from the rest of your children.

...subtle!