Chance Favors the Connected Mind

Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from – Steven Johnson (2010) 

Chance favors the connected mind. That was Johnson’s last sentence in this TED talks presentation in which he spoke about researching where ideas come from.

He gives points that support the theory that ideas build slowly over time, that are more likely to happen in chaotic environments (such as the coffee house in the age of enlightenment  in England) and when people share thoughts and problems, this is also known as the liquid network.

The slow hunch is that an ideas is never just  suddenly one thing that is clear in your head but rather a process that builds over a period of time slowly. He gave an example of Darwin mentioning in his autobiography that he came up with the theory of natural selection in an eureka moment but when a scholar looked at Darwin’s notebooks he found that he had the theory months before he had the euphony.  The point from this is that ideas build over a period of time. 

This is only a very short summary of the TED talk I watched but you can also read more about it in his book (Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation) and you can watch this video which is a summary of the book on YouTube, I rather enjoyed watching it because of the way it explains everything by drawing it.

Most of the ideas I had (Good and bad) didn’t happen while I’m sitting down and pushing myself to think of an idea, and most of my ideas I remember having while talking to someone about something unrelated to the issue and suddenly I would get this idea and usually end up saying out something unrelated to the conversation and confuse the person I’m talking to. The other time that I had any good ideas was just before going to sleep when I’m half awake and when I wake up in the morning if I didn’t write it down I would wonder if I actually dreamt it. Then there are the ideas, most of these are at work, when I discuss the issue I’m trying to resolve with a colleague and find a great new idea together.

National Days

While driving around AlAin tonight I realized that national day decorations in the streets are not a interesting as every year even though this year is the 40^th national day. Usually, by national day AlAin would light up with decoration lights and people from all over the country will come to AlAin to see it but this year you could drive a few roundabouts without see any decorations.

This made me think of National Day in the UAE which is one of my favorite holidays because it always signifies the beginning of winter and rain and so you can see everyone decorating their cars and spending time outdoors either in the desert, parks or any outdoor restaurants and cafes. It’s also the only holiday that you can see physical signs of celebrations everywhere in decorations and festivals unlike Eid holidays, which are more about spending time with families and friends. I feel bad for countries that don’t have national days to celebrate their love to their country and share a holiday with all their few nationals regardless of religion or ethnicity (countries that do not have a national day are UK and Denmark).

What always interested me about national days is that all the national days that I know about are during a time of the year that the weather would be at its best in the country. Such as December in UAE, and Qatar, May in Germany, July in the US and Canada, which could lead us to believe that people are more willing to work, be positive, and build countries when they are happy with the weather. (That was a joke…)

With all this national day talks, I started reading about public holidays in different countries and found out that we don’t have as many public holidays as other countries, for example in the US, they have ten public holidays, in India they celebrate 16 public holidays, Britain has 8 public holidays and we only have 7 (New Year’s Day, Mouloud (Birth of the Prophet), Leilat al-Meiraj (Ascension of the Prophet), Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan), Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), Al-Hijra (Islamic New Year), National Day. That said some of our holidays are more than one day depending on the day of the week (if it’s on a weekend like National Day this year then we don’t get a any days off for National Day) and I don’t know about the other countries exact number of days.

Arabic or Gibberish

People who know me know how I have never been good at communicating in Arabic (not that I'm any good at it in English, but...). Unfortunately, my first job was in a very strong Arabic environment, where people don’t even just say thank you, their thank you’s are very long and last for minutes. When people ask me how I’m, I just say I’m well, thank you (Alhamdullah I’m fine) but they would say it in so many different ways that half of the time I don’t understand what they were saying.

I often (It actually happened ALL the time!!) embarrassed myself with my lack of knowledge of their arabic. I remember in my first few weeks, I had to do a presentation and the manager I was presenting to kept saying “Bayed Allah Wayhech” and I had no idea what to say because I kept translating it to “May God whiten your face” and just wanted to say “your face!”. I later mentioned this to my brother and turns out you actually do say “Wayhech Abyad” (Your face is white). It sounded ridiculous to me but hopefully one day I will be able to say it without laughing.

What I’m trying to say here, is that if you have kids, then teach them the national Arabic dialogue wherever you live, or just send them to some friends in Al Ain for the summer if you’re local. It will make it easier for them to fit it and understand different people, even in one culture.

Growing up

Spend in pure converse our eternal day;
Think each in each, immediately wise;
Learn all we lacked before; hear, know, and say
What this tumultuous body now denies;
And feel, who have laid our groping hands away;
And see, no longer blinded by our eyes.

-Rupert Brooke

I came to the conclusion that a person never realizes how much he has grown as much as when he read previous writings of his; journals, blogs, personal emails, etc.

There is no better proof of the things I did that I regret and things I said that certainly shouldn’t have been said. Things that seem trivial now meant so much before and I just wonder how silly and self indulgent I was.

I look around me and I see people, especially young women, living very superficial lives and I tried to make more of my life, but after reading my history I realized that I might not have been superficial but I still was not the person I thought I was; I didn’t live up to the image (not physical!) I had of myself.

I guess that is what growing up and learning is all about, you know more today that you did yesterday and hopefully less than what you will tomorrow, or as Lincoln said it "I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday". I know today that I’m not the same person I was six months ago, and that scares me because it makes me wonder who is the person I’m going to be next year?

This was like a wakeup call to remind me that every single decision I make today, is going to shape my future, whichever path I choose to take today, every hour I was I can’t rewind.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

-Robert Frost

Midterms are over ... almost!

Why is it that the last exam is always the hardest to study before? I just get tired from all the exams and the studying, and it all feels like it has been going on forever. While studying for the last exam you can think of a dozen other things that you should be doing, and you get tired faster and an all-nighter seems impossible. On the other hand, when you do well on your last exam all the other grades seems irrelevant and you just want to celebrate.

There are only two courses that any student graduating from UAEU must to take: Islamic Law and Emirates Society. Emirate society is a nightmare to most students in the university and I really didn’t understand why and so in a moment of idiocy I decided that I will take it in Arabic instead of English, I had many reason for doing that one of which is that it is about time for me to improve my Arabic and learn more about my country – in Arabic. Don’t I regret that decision now though, oh yes I do. The teacher seemed like a nice guy, I enjoyed the lecture in general and actually listened to what he was saying, I wrote pages and pages of notes (in Arabic!) and was very confident about doing well, I went to the exam and thought I did great since I wrote all the points needed. Here is what I’m proud of; I wrote two essays in the exam each a page long! The teacher was not as impressed about my answers as I was it seem because he didn’t give me a 100 (I think he really hated my handwriting!), he previously warned us that anyone who questions him about his grading in the essay questions will regret it because then he will open the book and if the student didn’t answer word for word from the book he/she will lost marks. After the exam he said something about the students having bad handwritings, misspelling some words and not underlining key words.

I was so mad, and still am because this course is for all students in the university in all levels and I don’t see why they should make it such a nightmare to the students, why not make it interesting to learn about your culture and history for once?!

I don’t care though because I did great in all my other exams so Egyptian Professor teaching Emirates society and enjoying a power trip is not worth ruining my day. (Can you tell I’m trying to convince myself? I really should have taken that course in English.)

Eid Mubarak

Belated Eid Mubarak to everyone!

I hate saying Eid was not great but it was not, it felt more like a long weekend where you just have to socialize with people and be nice. Since this Eid was not very enjoyable we are trying to plan something more fun for next Eid but I’m not sure it will work out because exams seem to stick with Eid these days, midterm exams after this Eid and final Exams after next Eid.

What makes us Muslims

[This post is basically me stating my view regarding what was posted on: Exposing Muslims against Sharia]

It’s a plain fact in life that things change, ideas evolve and cultural norms adapt to the changing environment, but what do we do when the change start affecting religious beliefs and values, and where do we stop and what should we hold to and what should be changed. It’s a sensitive issue in the society and many people deny and can’t accept that we should try to make the best of everything, of course their actions don’t agree with what they say but that’s another story. If we’re not going to change for ourselves then we should think about doing it for our children because we don’t want them to grow up with conflicting ideas in a multicultural society.

That said, there are things that we can’t afford to lose in Islam and our beliefs, they are plain facts that every Muslim knows and whoever doesn’t believe in that or can’t accept it – maybe they should go and give the religion they are self-tailoring for themselves a name other than Islam.

Islam is simple and direct unlike what people think, to be a Muslim you have to believe in some things and do some things that has been craved in our minds since we were kids, so I don’t see how grown up can’t remember them and hold dearly to them?

Articles of Faith (Arkan AlEman) –

1. Believe in Allah (an only God)
2. His Angels
3. His books of revelation (Quran, Torah, Testaments, Bible and more)
4. All His prophets
5. The day of judgment and the afterlife
6. Faith in divine decree whether it’s good or bad.

Five pillars of Islam (Arkan AlEslam) –

1. Declaration of faith (Alshahada) which goes “I believe that there is only one God and Mohammed is his messenger”
2. Prayer (Five times a day at designated timings)
3. Fasting (Seyam) in the month of Ramadan
4. Zakat – almsgiving in a certain percentage according to a person’s assets.
5. Hajj – Pilgrimage to Makkah at least once in a Muslim’s life to those who are able.

If you don’t believe in those things then you can’t call yourself a Muslim anymore because how can you identify yourself with a group of people when you don’t believe in what holds the group together?