I'm 22 with a spouse and newborn son. I have to say that this has done more for my emotional and professional development than anything else could have at this point in my life.

Knowing my son will indirectly inherit my own habits has me focusing a lot on my productivity and accountability.

Enjoy your son, he will grow so fast. Spend moments you have with him totally focused on him, not on how to teach him to be productive, at least not in his early years. Teach him to explore, be curious and to love life. Productivity will come.

This is why I wrote 'indirectly'

The most valuable thing I can give him is passion. It's not my responsibility to direct it towards a preferred venue, rather to expose him to the world in a safe way that allows him to explore what makes him happy.

Accountability and candidness allows people to trust in you and forms the foundation of good leadership. Productivity allows one to drive their efforts towards their passion into tangible product or work produced.

If he can create value and convince others that he is consistent in his beliefs, then it is my hope that the world will allow him to grow to his fullest potential.

It's my hope that by observation of some of these core values being actively expressed by my own actions, it will make it easier for him to adopt them as he matures.

>Get married, buy a house, have kids. Then you know you have to finish your work because you are responsible for others.

That’s like shooting yourself in the leg because you want stronger arms, and putting yourself in a wheelchair will help with that.

You'd be surprised how great the motivation is when you have a kid. Especially the first years. And I was thinking just like you before taking this step.

This. For me, I changed completely. Things I used to find stressful became water on a duck's back. Things I thought were catastrophic became small. When you bond with your baby, whatever was the most important thing to you gets supplanted. It sounds like that would negatively impact your performance but my performance improved. I became more consistent, more reliable.

My boss knew me for years before the birth of my children and has a few more years after to compare. He tells me he witnessed no less than a transformation.

I feel like I could have 'timed' it better. I feel I could have saved more and all of that. But then I wouldn't be the type of person who cared about those things until I became a father.

Having children really changes you as an individual, especially as you start your family. Your priorities become different and I think both of you are correct in mentioning the motivation for providing and creating a safe environment for the family unit really arises in the individual, almost innately.

If you have a new marriage, children and a house you will have zero time for side projects. If you do spend all your time on side projects - you'll probably lose the marriage, children and house...

That's a good motivator up to a point. With some luck you might be able to more or less secure your family's future. Some people may have grander ambitions.

Worst advise, period.

Can you prove it? For starters, can you provide stats of "out of work" / "unemployed" people who are single vs have a family?