[sokoloff]

Entirely agree, which is why I specified that all four are equal on those points in the premise. Once those are held equal, time, experience, reps, or whatever you want to call it, matters (or you have to find another explanation of how Charlie and Debby didn’t develop in work-related dimensions given the extra time, experience, and reps).

[AstroDogCatcher]

I've never met two people I'd describe as equally competent across the board, so it seems like an irrelevant exercise. We have also not touched on what personal growth and emotional maturity a person can gain in a few months away from work.

I suppose my conclusion is that as you argue, people probably will discriminate - but it is that part we should be pushing back against in order to make this proposal work, rather than just accepting it as an unavoidable consequence of parenting.

I want to also add that I have no children and no intent to have them; but I like the idea of the work culture we are describing here for other reasons. For example, acceptance that taking a sabbatical might be a significant positive step for some professionals if we can step back from the evaluation grind.

[sokoloff]

I took the max (paid) paternity leave for both my kids and am confident that my subsequent promotions were as they should be: against the standards for the next level without regard to whether or not I took any type of leave along the way.

The purpose of thought experiments is to examine some situations without bringing irrelevant factors in. We don’t need to literally know the same Adam and Charlie in order to reason about what matters and what should be disregarded in a given situation.