“It is very difficult to find any reliable, empirical relation between the small variations in what parents do – the variations that are the focus of parenting [advice] – and the resulting adult traits of their children … There is very little evidence that conscious decisions about co-sleeping or not, letting your children ‘cry it out’ or holding them till they fall asleep, or forcing them to do extra homework or letting them play have reliable and predictable long-term effects on who those children become. From an empirical perspective, parenting is a mug’s game.” But, of course, that won’t stop new parents from filling their shelves with parenting books. Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian: The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry. (We got a couple new puppies about a year ago. They were barking a lot. We tried everything to get them to stop, and eventually we just waited until they grew out of it. That pretty much mirrors my parenting philosophy.)

+ Related: Raising a Social-Media Star. (The best advice I’ve ever given my kids is not to start their YouTube videos with the generic, “Hi guys!”)