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

We all suck. Don’t forget that.

making sure that you’re working towards financial stability. Will allow you to walk away from everything that you do, and allow you to give some peace in your mind that worst case scenario you will be OK.

And highly recommend for you to work on the basics, where you have insurance is to prevent financial catastrophe, working on wise choices that allow you to contribute a lot financially to your long-term personal wealth.

Living frugally and education choices will help you!

I spoke to one of the world's leading scientific experts on oil spills. Chris Reddy, an oceanographic, is one amazing person, and understands the culture of science.

Christopher Reddy talks about his experiences as a scientist and why it is important to set boundaries in work, why it is important to find a bigger why in science, and dealing with family life in #science.

He also talks about why it is important to get a team around you to keep you mentally sharp, and to deal with the ups and downs of research life.

Get a financial planner to do well in your career.

Be at peace with who you are. My whole life I have wanted “people to like me” and to fit in.

That is why I got into education and #scienceandtechnology.

I thought education was my ticket to earn acceptance from others.

I don’t fit in today.

I feel ackward and strange, just like I did in grade 9.

I never really had friends in early high school.

It never goes away, no matter what you do.

Accept yourself.

Realize that you’re a good person and that’s all that matters.

Quit trying to impress everybody around you, you’re already impressive.

For me, a powerful moment of my day is very I simply just to say “I’m good enough.”

I don’t need to get other people to like or accept me.

I can walk away and be good enough.

It is a powerful thing to remember.

You just do your work, and that’s it.

The rest of “who you are” speaks by itself.

As a #professor, I need to get to where I’m going often too quickly.

I don’t know “where” I’m going, but I need to get there fast.

If I told you, you wouldn’t understand.

Learning to say I don’t need to get there “today” is one of the most powerful things that has released me from a lot of the baggage that comes with my career.

You might get “there” tomorrow.

If I say patience, you’re going to discount that. Nobody puts enough weight on patience.

But, if I say it is letting go of what people expect of me, you may pay attention to what I am saying.

More importantly:

It is learning how to give the world the middle finger in my head.

Saying no, and getting patience requires you to say “screw it” so much that it becomes your mantra.

It’s learning how to set boundaries where I say “it’s not my problem”, I need this time today.

I need this excerise.

I need this time.

I need this hallway chat.

The most important thing that you can ever do is to take a step back and give yourself a freedom to give the world a “middle finger.”

The world will keep going around, and you’ll just love yourself a little more.

I was never meant to do this. I strongly believe that if you have those feelings to embrace them and try to figure out what you’re actually about. Try to find how you can blend what you’re doing with your own sense of self.

#PhD students in business are taught to #strategize in their career. I think it’s the worst thing we can do.

I have grown frustrated with the neoclassical economic model. I was enamored with it early on during my PhD, and took a whole bunch of extra PhD #economics classes.

It is similar to “pure math,” so it is a simplified world.

While it is pervasive, and it is a relatively easy model to work with, it’s assumptions often lead us a stray.

You must pursue your objectives, and economize on all of your resources. Those that are best at economizing and strategizing will rise to the top.

It often made me feel very hollow inside to think about people strategically, and getting ahead is the only thing that mattered.

This is often what is taught in most PhD classes, because science is often so cutthroat.

You must #strategize to get ahead. Otherwise, you will not get a job.

My model of the world has greatly pivoted towards thinking of how can we encourage more people to smile, despite the fact that smiling does not fit in with the neoclassic economic model.

Smiling consumes resources. It is a net cost.

There are many things that are a net cost and society, and they offer no economic value.

In the #academia, community building and reviewing is deeply discounted. Yet, the system does not function without it.

Many people will never be economic agents, from those with severe disabilities to those who care for others. Right now, parenting and family life have no room in business.

That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. The one action that allows us to sustain our civilization is not explained in mainstream #business ideas.

I think about how we can encourage more people to take time and say hi to other people.

Stop with the strategizing, and start with making time for others.

most major moments of your life, and even within each day, just require you to slow down and not get panicky. The analogy that I like to give is that this is a kid to swimming.

Swimming is just controlled drowning. And you have to slow yourself down to realize that you’re going to be OK and to get through it to the other side. the more that you can slow yourself down the faster off, you will be..

I am not the best, nor will I ever will be.

We define ourselves by being the “best” in any particular category.

Once you’ve been living life long enough, you’ll realize that these categories are pretty arbitrary, and they most often ignore all of the things that you don’t excel at.

When you openly talk about the things that you’re not best at, people will ask you “are you OK?”

Or, they will just say “he’s a complainer.”

Rather than thinking about how you’re the best, why don’t you simply just think about the actions and behaviors that get you to be a better person.

Becoming the best is an arbitrary categorization that you’ll never be able to achieve.

And if you do it achieve it, it will be so narrowly defined that it’s going to ignore many of your other wonderful traits that you are describing as not best.

This is a subjective opinion.

That thing that you are the best at is likely because of an abnormality, just like the things that you believe are not so good.

You cannot replicate that abnormality, and ergo, it is nothing you should focus on.

Just be YOU, and take one more step today.

You don’t need to be the best, but you need to take that step.

If we focused on performing the actions and behaviors, rather than the actual outcomes, you’ll likely far exceed any of these categorizations anyways.

Be you, because you are remarkable.