Why are so many young people delaying family formation? Rather than some deep social analysis, it can simply be explained that men and women alike enjoy having free time. When viewed through the lens of maximizing one’s free time, it makes more sense. Having enough free time is an essential ingredient for being successful.
And second, that the personal returns to careerism and workaholism have never been greater than in today’s hypercompetitive economy and society, where superstars and outliers can seemingly achieve extreme wealth and high status almost overnight in fields as diverse as AI, finance, or even social media such as YouTube. It’s a poor value proposition to have to delay or forfeit all of that, compared to 40+ years ago when things were less competitive and the returns to careerism were worse.
Being talented is not good enough, because you’re competing against equally talented people who have undivided attention for their careers, so you’re still at a disadvantage.
Consider Andrew Huberman, Mr. Beast, or Joe Rogan. Aside from being really successful, what else do do they have in common? They all delayed family formation. Andrew Huberman and Mr. Beast have no wives or kids. Mr. Rogan waited until 44 to get married. This meant more free time build their careers and brands.
Even after becoming successful, they still delayed, so the issue wasn’t money, but rather time. Producing podcasts and videos and booking guests is extremely time consuming.
In fact, when I think through the list of all the content producers who I follow, I notice this common thread. One possible exception is Derek Alexander Muller, the creator of the super-popular Veritasium science-baased YouTube channel, who waited until last year, when he was 42, to finally get married and have kids. By that point he was basically at the peak of his fame, having sold his brand to a private equity firm in 2023.