R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness

Taking steps forward can be difficult, but it's important to remember that most of the steps you take will feel like they are below you. This is just part of the process of starting. To be successful, you have to be willing to put in the effort and face challenges head-on. Trust that with each step you take, you are getting closer to your goal and becoming stronger in the process. So, don't be dis...

As a parent, your focus shifts from supporting and guiding your kids to adapting to their growing independence. This change can be challenging to navigate, but it's important to find ways to grow and support yourself. One way to do this is by developing new hobbies and strengthening existing relationships. Hobbies can provide a sense of fulfillment and give you time for self-reflection, while buil...

Just keep doing things and putting good into the world as much as you possibly can. Idle moments lead to mind wondering that is not good for you in any sort of way.

At the micro scale, I have to realize that I can’t fix everybody’s problems. But at the macro scale, I can have a big impact because of the problem of self interest that happens collectively In the academic market, we have a tragedy of the commons, where people are not addressing larger issues because they’re self interested.

I document the emotions that you might go through as a #academic researcher based on my own experience. You will have moments of high stress, such as #teaching or submission deadlines, followed by a recuperation. these are generally moments of high excitement, and generate elation. The following day, you often feel exhausted. I tend to feel worn out, sad, and often get migraine headaches. This is...

How do you deal with the social, isolation that you feel from doing research? Been really struggling with this in the last while, and I don’t quite know what the answer is. Are used to be really good with dealing with the sadness that you get from doing research, but where the years has become more difficult to deal with it. I’m just curious to see what your thoughts are and how you actually manag...

It's never too late to pursue your passions and goals. Age should not be a barrier to trying new things and enjoying life to the fullest. Imagine if you were a 90 year old and you wanted to pursue gymnastics your whole life. Why wouldn’t you actually try to pursue gymnastics when you’re 90 years old? What’s the worst that’s actually gonna happen to you? It may improve your flexibility and overall...

We make up the world around us. There are structures in place, but those structures have largely been made up by other people. Why not create the structures in the life that you want by making it up as you go.

An important aspect of making wise financial choices is thanking about long run averages. If something is relatively proven, you should think about the long range average return that you’re going to expect. For example, on average, most publicly traded companies, make a return of summer around 10% per year based on looking at the stock market. So your expectation should be that it should make summ...

Our future is likely going to be different than how we understand it today. Rather than being pessimistic about the future, I think we need to manage the future such that it has more positive than negative that result.

Is it going to break? A simple question you should use when you purchase products. Ask yourself, “is it going to break, and if so, what’s going to happen when it breaks?” This was a simple, but important question I learned from my Dad. When you purchase new things, #technological leadership does not necessarily mean that it’s a better product. In fact, better products are often very simple and are...

Rather than focusing on large groups, link, boomers, or millennials, focus on the percentage of people that will actually engage with what you’re doing.

after years of the reciprocity project, I’ve come to conclude that you need to build an audience before you do much of anything. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a book, building a business, or becoming an athlete, having an audience where you can find 1000 true fans as Kevin Kelley points out is essential feature of any venture. The problem is is that you have to provide value in advance...

Get back up again every day. It’s not whether you actually get the outcomes, it’s whether you are actually pursued and weather in you got back up again and it didn’t work out.

I talk about the importance of managing boredom in a research career to prevent you from feeling negative emotions. Making sure that you’re always spending time to be around. People is healthy, and should be part of your research life.

researchers tend to be pessimistic, but it’s important to keep optimistic about the world. If you look at longrun trends, you often see positive improvement.

life. If you don’t do something you’re not going to make as much money, or you’re not going to succeed in the long run. You hear: Follow your #passion. Go where the money is. In my experience, the idea is not to worry about what is right and wrong, but to simply get up and pursue “anything” with all your heart. If things are not working out and you’re actively pursuing, you’ll figure out a way to...

Having additional frustrations for humans when they interact with computers, does not solve the long-term problem, and just makes it more frustrating for humans to actually interact

Having some amount of #consistency, regularity, or #everydayness is an important part of everyone’s life. When you’re younger and you’re just getting used to this consistency, you often view it as #mundanity, but as you get older, and you realize that consistency is actually the gift in your life Hearing the birds every morning, and seeing the sunset, every night is an indication that you are able...

Your life is not meant to be maximized. It is far too many objectives in life to pick the appropriate objective. We talk about him later, fitness, routines, and healthy diet. But, this is the wrong way to think about our life in general. Some days you’re going to eat more cake than other days, some days you’re gonna be able to exercise and eat, right, and some days you’ll be able to feel at peace...

how do you deal with situations where others do not have a perspective of understanding? You let them have their say, and then you develop systems, and how to make the uncertain situation appear more fair for everybody. Much of life is uncertain and it’s very likely that there is not a right answer. However, you can develop systems to make it feel like there are just or fair outcomes.

A key to remember with almost every negotiation that you have in your life is to come from your perspective of understanding. What does what do you is remove some of the emotional reaction that you actually have when things don’t go your way. Also help you to understand where the other side is coming from. In general, this allows you to bring empathy into all of your negotiations. Often, it will r...

The way I view index funds as a insurance against me not being able to work at some point. If you view investing as insurance against your own income stream, you will make far different choices and how and where do you invest it. It’s not a get rich, quick scheme. Investing is very much about setting yourself up in the future so that you don’t have to work if you choose to.

A direct result of a focus on productivity in #Academia leads to social isolation. The only way that we can improve productivity per person is by #isolating ourselves from others. However, this isolation can lead to feelings of #loneliness and can negatively impact mental health and well-being. Often we talk about collaboration, but ultimately collaboration still results in isolated work for indiv...

Living with #ADHD is a #professor is challenging. You’re always forgetting things, you can’t seem to be organized, and all aspects of your life are dictated by what you actually forget. Good luck remembering names. Good luck showing up for meetings on time. Good luck writing. Good luck reading. What do you get evaluated on? What you write, remembering student names, and being in meetings. Everyone...