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

I define the term selective science, which is where individuals choose features of science to fit their current worldview. Selective science is an interesting phenomenon because individuals pick the elements of science that they prefer, but negate the fact that science has underlying and unifying principles. Navigating one aspect of science generally means that you’re navigating all aspects of science.

Selective science is also an interesting phenomenon because of the benefits and costs of science and technology ate immediately apparent. Much of what we see and do in front of us in our daily lives is because of the efforts of science. Most of us would not be able to eat, travel, live in a shelter, or work without the efforts of scientist in previous generations.

many people don’t understand that organizations have a long run mandate and they have to operate within that mandate no matter how uncomfortable it is for constituents.

Show me a video with someone doing mundane life and I will show you a real video about morning rituals.

I talk about the importance of doing things that make you uncomfortable, and you wouldn’t normally do in public. The more that you do those things the easier it actually gets, and the more normal you actually feel.

most important thing you can remember it’s not whether you’re succeeding in any given day, but it’s the fact that you get up and try every day. It’s always a slow painful process, and there’s no direct relationship between what you do in any given day and getting to success. The only relationship I know of is by trying.

It is never about making large decisions in your life, but choosing to make little mundane actions every day. The more that you repeat these mundane actions, the better off that you can perform.

overtime you learn to protect yourself from the outside world. You can’t control outside forces, and it’s very often other people are projecting their anxieties and insecurities onto you.

However, you can control the walls that you put up in your life. Very often it is better to create a cocoon around yourself, then absorb these outside forces.

Creating a barrier allows you to deal with the emotional strain of the outside forces a bit better.

I talk about how you invest for your long-term benefit, but at the same time forgive yourself when you violate rules within these investment plans.

I talk about how there is uncertainty or chance in all of our decisions. Most people interpret this uncertainty in a much different way than scientists interprets uncertainty. If you’re making investment decisions remember that most things are outside of your control, and if something good happens to you recognize that there’s a lot of chance that happens in that outcome. If there’s something bad that happens to you try to interpret it as if it is a random outcome and don’t let it get absorbed into your mind.

I think we should encourage everybody to be challenged. When you default to making things easy we believe that hardship is something that should not exist. However, hardship almost always builds character and courage.