How Do People Even Get Paid to Do Research?

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · May 28, 2026 · 13m

(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…