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

I talk about getting more done in the day, and becoming more efficient. Do you realize that productivity is a misnomer, and it is a somewhat meaningless term.

Comedians often reflects culture. The reason that they reflect culture is that they practice defined the jokes and stories that resonate with a audience. I discuss the business of comedy and thinking about culture behind comedians.

The only thing that you could do today that will get you ahead is to try. You’re not gonna feel like trying, and you are gonna want to give up, but the way that you keep improving is to try. Nothing much will happen. You will only see minor changes, and most likely no changes, but it is that relentless pressure that moves things forward.

Push back against the environment. The only thing that you can possibly do to change where you’re at right now is to keep pushing back against the environment. It will likely take you decades, but that’s actually how you make progress. Progress is slow, but it happens.

Deadlines are arbitrary dates that we choose to define our world. Deadlines are used a lot in #education, but are less relevant in the working world. They are not especially irrelevant in family life. #Deadlines are a product of Taylorism and the #professionalization of work. Life is a continuous flow of information, and we punctuate this life with deadlines. In academia, I have increasingly becom...

rather than teach about fax and data, we need to start teaching science in terms of the stories behind scientists and the struggles that they actually face. Science truly is not about facts, but it’s about a story of scientist standing up with weird ideas and trying to convince other people that they’re weird ideas are more valid in the ones that they currently possess. Once we tell the story of c...

People don’t care as much as you think they do. So, why not be yourself? I repeatedly think about how you think about other people and what they’re going to think about what you’re doing. You realize when you do some thing that’s very public is it really nobody cares about it as much as you think that they will. They are too worried about themselves. They will look at it and do nothing. They will...

After continuously doing research, and devoting majority of my life to scientific research, I still do not understand how to do it better today than I did a few years ago when I started.

Be the person that’s willing to get up and get going every day. Most people don’t really want to do that because it’s hard work. when you do that, people will laugh at you, and you will inevitably “feel” like an outsider. You might be looking at me and thinking of this person is fortunate, he grew up in Canada and now he is a professor of Business in the United States. This is true. I don’t know m...

Keep leveling up. It might seem what you’re doing is really boring and tedious, but you need to remember that to develop and grow do you have to keep doing those boring things every day. I am not saying to devote your life to work, but I am saying to keep at it, one little task at a time. Just like in video games, to level out you have to do a lot of tedious work. It sucks to keep shoveling or ham...

The more I study strategy and economics, the more I realize that the idea of competition is getting people screwed up in the head. We need to start focusing on human traits of bonding and what one would consider ‘feminine’ traits. These more softer traits, like kindness, empathy, and being nurturing, are the drivers of competitive success because they bring us closer together with other humans.

You get up and you do it anyways, everyday. One of the harder things that entrepreneurs and researchers have to deal with is that nothing happens until you make it happen yourself. There’s nothing you can do other than just getting up and working at it. Here is the thing. You only become good at it after you have worked at it for twenty years. It is much like playing the piano. You suck at it at t...

There’s only so much you can do. Enjoy where you are in the moment. There is substantial structure to #academic and #organizational life. You might want to move up, or change your position, but in reality you’re part of a large network, matrix, or cellular structure. There’s only so much that you can move within a particular structure. This used to make me upset. But, I am coming to terms with our...

Rejection says a lot more about them, than about you. As non-famous academic, rejection has become my default. I am generally rejected from most things I apply to. I used to internalize rejection a lot. I used to think that it was somehow my fault for the rejection, or I didn’t explain myself enough. “I” was the problem. However, I’ve come to realize that moments where you feel rejected, or are yo...

take a stand. It’s important to stand up and have courage to do the things that are right. Stand up when you say screw you to the rest of the world because you know what you’re doing is right, not because there is some performance aspect to it.

People do not care about the technical details. They care about feeling more human. With new products and innovations, nobody cares about the technical details of what you’re trying to do. This is boring. They feel like they could figure it out themselves. They care about feeling more human. They care about “why” you’re actually doing it. Telling “your story” is your theory behind why you’re actua...

We all have struggles and challenges that we face, but whether that becomes a “hero story” really starts with you. I’ve come to realize that in order for me to tackle many of the things that go on in my life that hold me back, I have to be more open and let other people know about the challenges that one faces. One of the biggest challenges that I face is dealing with male authority figures. Autho...

I discussed driving around San Francisco and the feelings that we should do something about intercity poverty.

It’s really just about work. I think we focus on what we can do easily, and we forget that the stuff that actually matter just takes grinding work. When you’re done it, you’re extremely proud of the fact that you actually did it. I have never been proud of anything where I thought I’ve strategized my way there. Put in the grinding work.

In order to make substantial differences and to change the world, you will have to pursue moonshot ideas that seemingly don’t make sense. Nobody will believe in the idea. The idea behind moonshots is not necessarily around objective performance, but about search and discovery. It’s about pursuing things because you find it interesting and your playful. Most of us will never do any moonshot ideas,...

Playing the #academic game and trying to impress other people never makes you feel good inside. It just does not. Eventually, you start to reflect on what it means to be “you.” For me, the mark of my own academic maturity is realizing you don’t need to “play the game.” You can square your shoulders and be just a good person. There is no game. The only game is to help other people out, be kind, and...

I think a key thing to remember is you’re never going to feel good enough. No matter how much I’ve actually done this academic game, I never feel good enough, smart enough, or accomplished enough. You always feel lost and behind. I’m beginning to realize that pursuing being good enough is not my objective. Instead, it’s about being OK with you I am today. It’s about chasing positive emotions in th...

Become comfortable with who you are. You spend more time with yourself than anybody else. no matter how much social capital or relationship building that you do, you will always spend more time within your own head. Consequently, it’s important to keep the conversations in your own head optimistic and positive. That person that you’re talking to in your mind can make all of the difference to how y...

Much of what we do is a learning process, and if we’re gonna take learning seriously we have to focus on making the process enjoyable. Learning is focused often on negation or falsification, and by it’s nature, it is not an enjoyable process. Look for creating and repertory responses that are positive, fun, and enjoyable, so that you will be more likely to repeat those responses in the future.

Remember to have extended breaks so that you can recuperate and become yourself again.