gotta say the single most important thing that gives me joy today is this puzzle of trying to make my life more fun and more exciting. That’s what the whole Reciprocity Project actually is.

For decades, research has never been as fun as people think it is. If you want to test this, go write a research paper on the weekend. You’ll realize instantly: “oh my gosh, I hate this.”

That’s been my life for as long as I can remember—writing under extreme pressure.

So I’ve been trying to solve one thing:

How do you create a nearly non-rejectable research paper that is fun, interesting, your own flair—and actually exciting to do?

And here’s the real puzzle: absolutely nobody cares right now. Maybe a handful of people are paying attention, but most don’t. And yet this puzzle gives me joy. Trying things. Building things. Playing around with ideas. Seeing what moves the needle. Even as I burn up time and resources.

I’m ten years in and feel like I’m just starting.

And I keep thinking about the reality so many researchers live in: chronic anxiety, stress, depression, tunnel vision. Most people never seek out anything that might make this life easier. And search engines bury anything that doesn’t benefit them anyway.

So the puzzle remains:

How do we make research fun?

How do we make it interesting?

How do we democratize it—not just for elites?

It’s not just AI. It’s about making our lives easier and more enjoyable. It’s about treating research as something worth playing with, not something that destroys us.

I know nobody’s riding in on a white horse to fix any of this. So I’m building it myself. Slowly. Messily. Joyfully. One puzzle at a time.