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

David Maslach

Professor David Maslach talks about graduate school, research, science, Innovation, and entrepreneurship. The R3ciprocity project is my way to give back as much as I possibly can. I seek to provide insights and tools to change how we understand science, and make it more democratic.

  1. 2d ago

    Entrepreneurship in Academia Is a Lonely Game

    Here’s what nobody tells you. Building something truly different is like flying a plane while you are building it. When I first heard that in my PhD program, I did not fully get it. Now I do. Nobody really knows what to do. Nobody really knows the right course of action. There is no single correct answer. There are many plausible worlds. Many possible truths. And you have to pick one. Entrepreneurship research has said this for nearly 100 years. Entrepreneurs bear uncertainty. That is the job. And uncertainty feels awful. You will be embarrassed. You will think what you built is glorious. Others will roll their eyes. You will spend time. You will spend money. You will not have enough of either. People will judge from the sidelines. They will offer suggestions. They will not offer help. From the outside, it looks simple. From the inside, it feels torturous. Good science looks effortless when you are not the one doing it. When you are in it, it is art. And art is painful. You will want to quit. You will think you are wrong. You will think everyone else must know something you do not. They do not. Most people never try. Of those who try, almost all quit. Because they thought there would be answers. There are never answers. There is just standing back up and doing it again. It is lonely. It is embarrassing. It is uncertain. And if you are building something new inside academia, this is the life you signed up for. That is my life with the R3ciprocity project. And I am still here.

    9 min

  2. 6d ago

    Why People Don’t Want to Cooperate (Even When It Helps Them)

    Many systems—academic, economic, organizational—are built on the belief in rational, cooperative actors. But people often enter interactions: • Threatened by cooperation • Pre-committed to not cooperating • Motivated to harm systems they view as unjust, even at personal cost This isn’t just “bad behavior.” It’s the norm that too many theories write off as “noise.”

    12 min

  3. May 30

    What Senior Scholars Quietly Think About Massive Publication Counts

    If you’re in the research game, you eventually have this weird shift. You start discounting highly published people. Not because you’re bitter. Not because you’re jealous. But because you understand how much work is actually involved. And when you see a massive publication count, you start thinking: there are other effects going on behind the scenes that I can’t observe. If you talk to the elite of the elite researchers, they often know this. They’re suspect of people that publish too much. And here’s the part that sounds strange to outsiders: some people that publish less actually get more respect from very elite researchers, because they’re valuing good work and they’re not playing the game. The problem is the marketplace. Academia rewards a tremendous amount of publications. And that pressure is not really about the individual. It’s often at a higher level of analysis. Institutions push output. So people respond with networking. And networking, in my view, is often somebody with a tremendous amount of power publishing on the backs of people with less power. Sometimes it’s status. Sometimes it’s armies of junior folks. Sometimes it’s ghost writing. And we often look the other way. So you end up seeing two worlds: One world is constant talk about publications, how to publish, and leveraging networks. The other world is curiosity: that’s a cool idea, let’s make it better. You can feel the difference in ten seconds. There’s a term for what happens when the system is fixed and people focus on extracting value instead of growing value: rent seeking. I wish it didn’t happen. But it does. And once you see it, you understand a lot of the academic profession.

    10 min

  4. May 30

    The Anxiety Behind High Performance in Academia and Professional Careers

    I’ve been digitizing old photos of myself as a kid. What hit me was not the haircut. It was how hard I was on myself even then. By 13 or 14, I had already decided I needed to be perfect to be liked. That belief pushed me through engineering, a PhD, and becoming a professor. It also quietly followed me everywhere. Academia did not create my anxiety. It rewarded it. You learn quickly that you are never quite good enough. Publish more. Work harder. Do better. Repeat. If you stay long enough, you start to believe it. It becomes your normal. Looking at those old photos, I realized something simple. I was already doing well. I was already okay. Nothing about that kid needed fixing. Yet I spent years acting like I was a problem to solve. And here is what scares me. This is not just academia. I see it in medicine, law, tech, everywhere. Smart people slowly absorb the idea that they are never enough. Like a frog in warming water, you do not notice it happening. Until it becomes your identity. So I am reminding myself of something I wish I learned earlier: You might already be doing better than you think. You might already be enough. Do not spend 20 years chasing approval from systems that survive on your doubt. Protect your mind. Protect your confidence. And if needed, distance yourself from voices that only grow by shrinking you. One day you will look back at photos of yourself right now. You will realize you were already pretty incredible. Do not wait that long to believe it.

    10 min

  5. May 28

    How Do People Even Get Paid to Do Research?

    (The short answer: we get paid every two weeks. The long answer is… complicated.) I’ve studied research and innovation for almost 20 years. I live it. And I teach it. So I think I’m fairly qualified to answer this one. There are two broad worlds to understand: industry and academia. ⸻ 🏢 In Industry The engine that drives economic performance is knowledge — access to it, and the ability to share it. Every major company has some version of R&D: teams that explore, test, and tinker with new ideas. They create recipes for future success. But here’s the trade-off: R&D is long-term gain at short-term cost. The first departments to go during financial trouble? Almost always the R&D teams. Why? Because sales and operations drive short-term profit. Research is an investment in a future that may never arrive. But the paradox is that without R&D, companies erode their future. The knowledge engine disappears. And so does long-term prosperity. That’s the cycle I first saw as a co-op student at the University of Waterloo. It’s still true today. ⸻ 🎓 In Academia It’s a little messier — and more political. Research in universities is largely publicly funded. Governments and provinces set aside money for knowledge creation. Some of this goes directly to universities; some flows through grants and competitive funding programs. At its best, this system is a long-term play. Nations invest in research not for next quarter’s profits, but for discoveries that may take decades to pay off. It’s also a marketing tool — universities love to say, “We invented that.” And that’s okay. It attracts talent and resources. But the real value isn’t bragging rights — it’s the primordial soup that forms when people share ideas openly, encourage each other, and take risks together. The quickest way to kill innovation? Fill your labs with self-centered, condescending people. It works in the short term. But it destroys creativity in the long term. ⸻ 💰 So How Do We Get Paid? Typically, professors and researchers are paid from budget lines funded by their government, university, or grants. That salary may be stable — or it may depend on how much grant money you bring in. Many of us pay out of pocket to keep projects going. It’s an investment in a career built on uncertainty. And here’s the hard part: No one knows which ideas will matter. We can’t predict what will become valuable — just that some of it will. Steve Jobs once took a calligraphy class for fun. Years later, that class inspired fonts on the Macintosh — a small feature that changed the way people used computers. That’s what research is: Hundreds of dead ends for one small moment that changes everything. ⸻ 🌏 The Future of Research Barriers to entry are rising. More education, more competition, more uncertainty. But I think this will shift. As countries like Taiwan and the Philippines continue to grow, they’re realizing that innovation capacity is the foundation of prosperity. And they’ll invest more in it. It might take decades — but the world is slowly remembering that research is not a cost. It’s the only real investment that keeps paying off. So yes — we get paid every two weeks. But the truth is, most of us are betting on the long game. We’re investing in something that may not show up in our lifetime. And that’s the whole point. Take care. #ResearchCareers #Innovation #PhDLife #R3ciprocity #AcademicLife #KnowledgeEconomy #JoyfulResearcher #EducationPolicy

    13 min

  6. May 26

    What If School Taught Grit, Grief, and Getting Along Instead of Algebra?

    We spend years teaching kids how to solve abstract word problems and memorize sequences. But rarely do we teach them how to handle rejection. Or get back up after failure. Or deal with their parents aging. Or regulate their emotions in a fight. Or understand why they feel what they feel. Why is math on a pedestal, while human behavior is on the sidelines?

    12 min

  7. May 23

    The Hidden Cost of Being a Smart Person in a PhD Program

    I found my old scholarships this weekend. And I felt like I failed them. Not because I did badly. But because I didn’t live up to the story I thought they promised. I’ve always been the type to work. Apply for things others don’t. Say yes to opportunity. First in my family to go to university. Given chances my family never had. So when I opened that folder… I felt grateful. Then strangely sad. Because even as a professor now, I still feel like I’m doing the wrong thing. Not living up to my potential. Not doing what the market rewards. Not quite fitting anywhere. In academia, we talk about impact. Entrepreneurship. Changing the world. But the market is the market. Papers are what count. So I chose a different path. One where I give back. One where many things I care about are not valued. One where I will probably always feel slightly “off.” And here’s the strange truth I’ve learned. That tension you feel? The one where you’re not fully satisfied with work… and not fully satisfied with life? That might mean you’re doing it right. If you only worship work, you burn out. If you only worship play, you drift. A healthy life lives in the tension. Where you never quite feel finished. Never quite feel balanced. But you keep going anyway. If you sometimes feel sad about missed paths… missed time… missed potential… You’re probably paying attention. You’re probably alive. You’re probably doing okay. Three things you can do today: • Spend 20 minutes on something meaningful that will never show up on your CV • Move your body hard enough to feel alive again • Tell one person you care about them and mean it

    12 min

  8. May 19

    When Doing Everything Right Still Fails

    When I was younger, I believed that most problems could be solved with mathematics, logic, and engineering. I truly thought that if we just worked hard enough, we could design our way out of almost anything. But after years of watching how people actually behave, I have realized that the reasons things succeed or fail rarely have much to do with math. They are usually about emotion. About how people feel. You can do everything right—be kind, caring, thoughtful—and still fail. Half the people you meet will not like you, no matter what you do. You can have the perfect formula, the best plan, and the right intentions. It will still fall apart because of something as small as pride, fear, or misunderstanding. That is the hard part about being human. The world does not run on logic. It runs on emotion, habit, and culture. So what do you do? Use humility. Keep going. Accept that you cannot fix everything. And remember: sometimes failing, even when you are right, is exactly what it means to be human.

    10 min
See All (1.5K)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Professor David Maslach talks about graduate school, research, science, Innovation, and entrepreneurship. The R3ciprocity project is my way to give back as much as I possibly can. I seek to provide insights and tools to change how we understand science, and make it more democratic.

Information

You Might Also Like