You may be right. You can do well as an engineer in a startup, but that's playing the lottery. Engineering careers for the rank and file aren't that great.

I studied engineering (M.S.) but now work as a management consultant. The work is not always fulfilling, but my salary is much higher than it would be if I was working as an engineer. Sad but true. And given the wife, kids, house situation, salary beats interesting, meaningful work.

Andrew, I love your writing, but I think you took a bit of an unwarranted potshot at Vivek Wadhwa, and I was pleased to see his measured response. His closing remark about showing "more respect to investment bankers than scientists" is right on. Of my engineering friends, 1-2 work as engineers. The rest are VCs, bankers, consultants, etc.

This link worked for me:

http://ej.iop.org/links/rGXtx9kpP/nGMlfcjV2xG6oBB4av5vpA/erl7_1_014002.pdf

As far as I can tell (based on a 3 minute scan), all the authors did is show that increased temperature correlates with reduced yields (though not particularly strongly). They then took these correlations and the temperature trends and figured out what the impact on yield due to temperature would be, all else being equal.

For me, the most interesting result was the contention that:

"Thus, the effects of CO2 and climate trends have likely largely cancelled each other over the past two decades, with a small net effect on yields.

This conclusion, while tempered by the substantial uncertainty in yield response to CO2, challenges model assessments that suggest global CO2 benefits will exceed temperature related losses up to ∼2◦ warming"

The data isn't strong enough to make this a smoking gun, but it's an interesting finding. As far as adaptation, what I'd like to know is how total yields will vary as our breadbaskets move toward the poles- e.g. in North America, will Canadian yields increase fast enough to balance decreases in the US Midwest?

Look, I'm pro-choice, but not overly so. If the circumstances were such that having a kid would pose a major detrimental impact to yourself and the child (abusive husband/father, destitution, etc.), then that's reason to bail. But bailing because you are 1-2 years ahead of schedule? Because it would be somewhat inconvenient? To paraphrase another poster, what the fuck?

Take what you are given and run with it. My wife and I initially had trouble getting pregnant; then we had twin boys. Then, a third somewhat unscheduled boy. Now, a fourth on the way.

I was originally adamant about having no more than two kids, but our plans changed. Turns out (now that the pump is primed) we are very fertile, we really dig being parents, and four kids just feels right (I'm going to take decisive action to prevent the possibility of a 5th). And as no one else in my extended family is really pumping out the units, I don't feel too bad about the population impact.

So go ahead and have the kid. If you are ever going to be ready, you are ready now. Just realize that you have no idea what you are getting yourself into (I am still trying to figure that out).

I'd just like to plug switchgrass and other crops for use as a solid fuel to replace oil for heating applications (and possibly cogeneration).

Here's a link: http://www.reap-canada.com/bio_and_climate_3_2.htm

The energy balance for pelletized fuels is much better than liquid fuels, as it skips the inefficient part of the process (conversion to ethanol).

Of course, pelletized grass is limited to stationary applications, but there's still a lot of oil being burned for such purposes.

Unfortunately, pelletizing grass doesn't get the producer a nice fat subsidy like ethanol conversion does...

I went to college with Gen. Great guy.

I also am very, very leery of the Microsoft monoculture; I am both heartened and saddened to see that things could be worse than what I experience in the U.S. At least I can do online banking from OS X, Linux, Firefox, Safari, whatever (at least at my bank).

As a consultant, though, I am pretty much tied to Windows/Office, b/c I need seamless compatibility with my clients for all those awesome slides, spreadsheets, etc. But I have a spare laptop on which I am going to install Ubuntu and CrossOver Office, so I can at least break part of the equation (by running Office on Linux). If only the Feds had broken apart MS into 3 businesses when they had the chance (OS, applications, and other) we'd all be better off.

Hey! My wife is friends with Peter's mom. I just met Cat Laine at a fundraiser for AIDG a few weeks ago in Weston, MA.

AIDG is a seriously awesome group; I call on all readers to open your wallets (we already have)!