Why is everyone just congratulating PG? Livingston is the one who has to carry it around for 9 months and give birth.

Kidding kidding, but congrats to Jessica too!

Indeed, congrats to Jessica & Mr. PG.

Congratulations!

On the humorous side, this reminds me of this story: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms

(Richard Stallman speaks a bit about having children)

The funniest part is:

"It doesn’t take special talents to reproduce, even plants can do it. On the other hand, contributing to a program like Emacs takes real skill. That is really something to be proud of.

It helps more people, too."

One more link that made me laugh a lot (again, Stallman): http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/text/rms-vs-d...

Anyone can have kids, but to raise them well is a hell of a lot of work.

Haha, too bad outsourcing would be bad conventions.

And raising them to be emacs contributors, even more so!

If it's such a painful hell of a lot of work, why do it? Why have kids if it's impossible to raise them well?

Good thing your parents didn't think that =)

Having a child (I have one) is a big responsibility but the joys far outweigh the work. I think, for me, the thing that I like the most is it gives me plenty of opportunities to learn not to be selfish but instead invest my time and energy into someone else.

And I would submit that it is not impossible to raise them well -- you just need to approach it the right way and educate yourself on the matter.

Congrats PG! I look forward to your essays on the matter.

Well, if my parents had thought that, then I wouldn't have to spend fourty hours a week sitting at a computer like a zombie. And that's just to be able to survive so that I can do more such work!

As for raising children... It really is impossible to raise them well. Every decision is a compromise and even if one choice is obviously better, it's just the lesser of evils. And those evils could have been prevented if the kid hadn't been born.

(I suppose I'm trolling, but this subject is so near and dear to me that I can't resist.)

Unlike emacs, kids actively seek out glitches. :-)

If only rms's parents had known that.

The ultimate startup

Congrats!

It is peculiar that we congratulate people on completing a compulsive bodily function.

Except that we're not.

For many of us, the advent and wide deployment of birth control allows us to choose if and when we decide to procreate. Part of the downside of this is that we're often waiting until we're older before we decide to have kids.

It'd be inappropriate for me to comment on JL's age, but from experiences personal and nearby, getting pregnant has the potential to be stressful, depressing, and exciting. And at times it just doesn't happen.

Congratulations are in order because they've decided to take a chunk of their lives and time to take responsibility for another human being. And because the deep-seated happiness that comes from it is a gift worth congratulations.

ps. congrats!

I think it's a sort of "I'm happy you're happy" thing. Whenever I congratulate someone on having a child, I'm not literally congratulating them on having sex and spawning another human. That would be silly.

Although, there are many couples who can't get pregnant who would like to, so in cases like that, maybe literal congratulations would be in order?

actually thats not true... we are congratulating the birth, not the conception!!

So, er, this would be an XX/XY-combinator?

Congrats

Here in Kenya, the kids born around now are either Obama (boy or Michelle (girl)

Really? Even among the Kikuyu and Luhya?

All of them, even Kamba, Miji-Kenda, Luhya and many others.By the way, we are 42 tribes in Kenya.

That's pretty amazing. I hope his popularity there lasts. May I ask what's your tribe?

afri-silicon you need to update your profile to include at least an e-mail.

Done

It only shows up to other users when you put it in the "about" field.

As I said before: pg&jl made someone that will hopefully make something people want. It'll need to be more than three months though :P

And more than $5,000!

Seeing yourself in your child is a most amazing thing, and sometimes a scary thing because you will then see your parents in yourself (maybe for the first time). Take tons and tons of pictures, because they grow very fast -- so fast that time for you will go by faster as you/they get older. Best wishes for a happy and healthy child, Mom, Dad, and family. Helping with schoolwork can be worse than changing diapers. When things are rough the first year, remember: these are the good years!

Congratulations! Expect some change on how you see the world. At least, that was for me with my two kids. I look forward to read the essays to come...

What change did you see?

I'm a more joyful person now, though more conservative also. Less selfish, more concerned about the future... and a lot of small changes...

Congrats Paul, wish you the best! How long are you going to wait 'til you start teaching him/her lisp?

I'm personally of the idea to leave kids out of your own profession. If they're curious and ask questions, sure, show them things and help them satisfy their interest, but don't push it beyond that. That should hold true for anything they're curious about, though.

Too early for my daughter in any case; right now in terms of computer interaction she's limited to watching videos of babies and animals on Youtube, and attempting to grab and drool on the microphone when we talk with her grandparents via Skype.

Really? I've always felt as if my dad being a software engineer really helped me foster a love for compsci. I mean, if he never said "hey son come here and check this out -- you can transfer stuff to the internet with this black box (cmd) and make cool pages your friends can see (websites in bare html)" -- I doubt I would have been as into the web as I am today if my dad didn't at least try to show me the stuff.

I understand the sentiment of not wanting to mold your children's interest by your own.

But, I think there is a difference between exposing your child to something you find interesting to see if it interests them too, and pushing your child to be interested in the things you find interesting. The vibe I got from grosales post is the former; expose him/her to Lisp, or some other computing topic, gauge their interest and go from there.

Oh, sure, I'd agree with exposing them to as much stuff as possible, showing them what's out there, and obviously that includes what you know best.

Congrats :) Kids are just awesome...

I will deviate a bit and also wish Jessica a warm congratulations from the whole HN community. I'm sure we will have to do some kind of gift at some point....

We're on it.

If I may suggest: http://www.cafepress.com/clevercuties.36038469

Good news that you're working on the replacements! Version 2.0 is always better than 1.0 -- once you get the bugs worked out.

Best of luck. Kids are can be a lot of sweat and tears, but they're also the best thing you can experience in life. "Terrible blessings" might be a good aphorism.

Beware the second-system effect. You know, the one where a parent says "It's too bad that I never got to go to medical school -- but my kid is going to be a doctor!"

Fortunately, startup-trained parents generally expect their kids to change their business plans several times.

(P.S. -- congratulations!)

On the contrary, studies have shown that V1.0s overwhelmingly tend to be the higher achievers.

Cohort effects!

Congratulations Paul! I wish you and your wife all the best during and after the pregnancy. - Eiso

Ditto !!!

Congrats to both of them, and best wishes.

Congratulations! Wish you the best.

Congratulations to both of you.

congratulations to Jessica and PG.

congrats and best wishes!

Congrats!

Congrats!