Personal Evolutionary Success
Avoiding the Evolutionary Rabbit Hole
Our most fundamental goal is to propagate our personal evolutionary material. We try to have as many kids as possible that will have a good chance to do the same. It’s a basic requirement of all living things and probably something you should look into. So please make sure you knock someone up (or get knocked up) at some point – you owe it your genes.
When we go to work every morning (or at least those of you who work), you’re generally trying to fulfill these needs in order to stay alive and best position yourself to on your genes. However, while integral to life, the ability to have sex and raise one’s kids without killing them does not necessarily engage one’s highest faculties.
Too Much Focus on Parenting
Obviously, there is absolutely nothing wrong with devoting one’s life to bringing up your children. However, trying to find personal fulfillment in your offspring puts undue pressure on them and stunts your own development. To be truly balanced, we need to pursue activities not just for the sex, money and security that are precursors to successfully raising children. For this reason, many people engage their higher faculties to pursue intellectual development or personal transcendence (which we'll discuss in the next section). These practices work synergistically with our evolutionary goals by making us better parents, employees and lovers - people that can more effectively raise their children to be successful in their own right.
Too Much Focus on Monetary or Sexual Success
Unfortunately, many people get caught in a feedback loop in the fulfillment of their evolutionary desires. Our most innate tendencies are to eat more, fuck more, spend more, even exercise more. Our priorities can easily get out of proportion and People who focus on earning money even after having more than they could have need have lost sight of full plane of existence. Bodybuilders, ultra-marathoners, pick-up artists - all these subcultures are examples of people who pursue healthy hobbies an unhealthy amount. While this kind of focus and dedication is valuable if these pursuits are used as a tool to achieve self-actualization, too often people lose sight of why they began in the first place.
Just don't try to Miss Piggy's solution - it never works