I see so much of my own view on research reflected not only in this post but in many of your blog posts. Your posts are very relevant and useful to me. Thank you 🙂
I’m a graduate student, and a big admirer of your blog. While reading this post, it occurred to me that reading and writing papers does not make me happy. Neither does reviewing papers seem fun. I enjoy doing research, which means coming up with a hypothesis, and finding an answer, but not writing it up, or discussing it.
Is this stuff that you learned to like, or did you naturally like it right from the beginning of your career?
P.S. : Apologies for the anonymous comment.
Mohamad Tarifisays:
Great blog post!
This is well supported by research in Positive Psychology showing that we derive well being from (in order):
1) meaningful life (contribution, purpose).
2) A life of Engagement (flow, mindfulness).
3) A pleasant life (relationships, minimum standard of living, helping others which also feeds 1).
Thanks for this excellent post. It closely parallels some interesting ideas from Dan Ariely’s book, The Upside of Irrationality, in which he presents evidence from behavioral economics that the joy we derive from our work is much more closely tied to the meaning we derive from it and usefulness to others than the prestige or monetary compensation we receive in exchange (assuming a baseline level is met).
This may have some implications in the move toward open science as well, as its qualities are consistent with several of the things you note above. Meaning, embracing the ideals of open science will likely make one a happier researcher.
I see so much of my own view on research reflected not only in this post but in many of your blog posts. Your posts are very relevant and useful to me. Thank you 🙂
@Thomas
Trying to make me happy, are you?
Thanks.
I’m a graduate student, and a big admirer of your blog. While reading this post, it occurred to me that reading and writing papers does not make me happy. Neither does reviewing papers seem fun. I enjoy doing research, which means coming up with a hypothesis, and finding an answer, but not writing it up, or discussing it.
Is this stuff that you learned to like, or did you naturally like it right from the beginning of your career?
P.S. : Apologies for the anonymous comment.
Great blog post!
This is well supported by research in Positive Psychology showing that we derive well being from (in order):
1) meaningful life (contribution, purpose).
2) A life of Engagement (flow, mindfulness).
3) A pleasant life (relationships, minimum standard of living, helping others which also feeds 1).
Looks like you’re very happy!
Regards,
Moahmad
Thanks for this excellent post. It closely parallels some interesting ideas from Dan Ariely’s book, The Upside of Irrationality, in which he presents evidence from behavioral economics that the joy we derive from our work is much more closely tied to the meaning we derive from it and usefulness to others than the prestige or monetary compensation we receive in exchange (assuming a baseline level is met).
This may have some implications in the move toward open science as well, as its qualities are consistent with several of the things you note above. Meaning, embracing the ideals of open science will likely make one a happier researcher.
Nice way to describe how to be happy.
Nice post, thanks. The link to `On being a happy academic` is broken, could you please fix it?
@Sanjeev
Thanks. I have fixed the link (hopefully) to Brian Martin’s paper.