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

can you be a good researcher without publishing in scientific journals? The question that comes up often and is debated within the public domain. The issue is is whether you will have the same legitimacy without that mechanism. It’s not that the science will be any worse, in fact there’s a lot of great science published on blogs and books, but it’s whether the external world believes what you’re doing is valid.

You can create an amazing career as a scientific blogger as long as you put in the same rigor and effort as somebody that goes through scientific publications. It will just take you a lot longer to actually get there, And you’ll have more doubters with what you’re actually doing. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.

You can’t change the endowments you are given. Our background, ethnicity, parents, and home are what you are born into.

The only thing that you can change is the opportunities that are presented your way. The only way that I know of to change these opportunities is to repeatedly be nice and do the right thing. It is dumb advice, I know — be nice and work hard.

It doesn’t happen overnight. Legitimacy and building status takes decades. You can’t get there through any shortcuts or systems.

Just continue to be nice. Continue to try.

The key thing is think about when your alternative actually is. For the most part, you don’t know what your alternative actually is, and you have to simply just keep working at what you’re actually doing right now. You can choose to make your environment incrementally better all the time.

Be fiscally conservative and think about the possibility that emergencies to happen.

Every once in a while weird things actually happen in your life, and you have to think about how to deal with that occurring.

The way you deal with it is by mitigating it before it actually happens. I have things like contingency planning, thinking about insurance, and having emergency funds that are available just in case.

It always is going to feel like a waste when you do that. Frankly, you are wasting resources.

however, it’s not going to feel like you wasted resources when a real emergency happens in your life.

Keep taking consistent steps every day. There’s nothing that you can do that can change your life in a more impactful way than to keep taking consistent steps towards a big goal in your life.

Everybody should pick some absurd goal and go after it.

Whether it’s weight loss, building a software project (eg., R3ciprocity), financial freedom, or her pursuing your career, we all need to think in terms of large ridiculous goals.

Every single day you keep taking most steps towards your goal.

It’s highly likely that you’re never going to get there, but it’s the effort that you put in towards achieving that thing and allows you to look back and see that you made an impact in this world.

One little step at a time.

you don’t do it because you’re scared of what other people are gonna say. You think that people are gonna laugh at you or they’re going to tell you that you’re worthless and why should you waste your time doing that.

Are you really going to leave your whole life listening to the opinions of others?

if you believe that you need to get student loans to get a degree, it’s probably a mistake that you’re getting that degree. Remember that that is a signal that there is very little return for the efforts that you’re doing. Use the signals at the market provides you.

I think we need to have a long conversation about academic productivity measures. First of all it’s not measuring productivity its measuring output. There is a big difference between output and when actually goes in to making of the sausage.

Given that we have a tremendous amount of data available, it seems strange to me to only measure academic productivity in a very narrow defined way.

I think we need to have serious conversations about even the name of academic productivity measures. We just need to have open conversations and really put them to the test.

be aware that the displays of wealth often do not correlate with actual well. They may correlate weekly, but for the most part wealthy people are not gonna be walking around displaying the assets that they actually own. Most wealthy people are not actively disclosing the wealth that they actually possess. Moreover, displays of wealth, like a large home or fancy cars, are a poor investment. The best investment you can make is in the intellectual capabilities of people as that produces economic production at a faster rate and physical products.

Should you do innovation projects or something entrepreneurial as a researcher? The answer is no. It’s going to be far too difficult and you’re gonna face a lot of uphill battles. If you’re not ready for those battles you’re likely to quit

Everyone has a tremendous amount of human #potential. If you pursue something that you’ve always wanted to pursue, you’ll never be bored.

Since I have start at the #R3ciprocity project, I’ve never felt more excited.

I am never bored. There’s always more to do.

One of the biggest mistakes that I ever did is listen to the idea that we need to specialize. What a load of horse crap.

Don’t listen to the outside world that says that you need to specialize and be boxed into certain mold.

Those people are just afraid to do some thing that’s innovative or different in their life. Since I started the R3ciprocity Project, I am growing so much as a person that I feel that I am completely different person than who I was five years ago.

Why are we sit around and not try for things is beyond me. If you’re feeling bored in your life, get up and do some thing. It doesn’t matter what it is.

Just do something.

Don’t be afraid to step out and pursue your dreams. It might not happen overnight, and you might not know what these outcomes will be, but good things will come.

Don’t be afraid.

Jump!