We tend to talk about tech and parenting through devices and artifacts — screen time, to code or not to code — but actually, there’s a bigger, macro picture at play there: game theory, economic incentives, culture, and more. So in this back-to-school episode of the a16z Podcast, two economists — Kevin Zollman, game theorist and philosopher at CMU and author of The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting; and Fabrizio Zilibotti, macroeconomist at Yale working on a book called Love, Money and Parenting — share their expertise on parenting through the lens of economics.
The hallway-conversation (with Hanne Tidnam) covers how these theories play out in practice — for example, when the kids are bickering in the back seat of the car — to how parents can balance altruism vs. paternalism when it comes to thinking about their kids’ future vs. their kids’ reality of living in the now. And then finally, how do different parenting styles, corporal punishment, education, and of course, technology, play a role in how we parent?
Fabrizio Zilibotti
Kevin Zollman
Hanne Winarsky is the Head of Writer Acquisition & Development at Substack.
The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.