2024 US Presidential Election!

With the disgraceful and shameful performance of Trump in his controversial one term presidency of the USA, is it not surprising that some believe that he will likely run again for the presidency in four years time?

Assuming he will survive the lawsuits that are lined up against him, if not incarceration, he will be older than what he called “the old man” Biden!  

In the coming four years, Biden has a tall order to undo the damage that Trump and his cronies inflicted on the nation and he would hopefully do that by appointing an experienced (not “yes men/women”) team to attend to the needs of the country rather than the personal benefits that his predecessor was mired in.

In the past four years the world watched a president who made a fool of himself and his nation, survived an impeachment and neglected to support the necessary measures to contain the escalating pandemic in his country.  

If history will be kind to Trump he would be labeled as the Nero of the 21st century, but, with all his misdeeds, I would not be surprised if historians use many more fitting labels to describe his “too long” one term!

Let’s pray and hope that the future, not only the next four years, for the USA and the rest of the world will be more bearable and sustainable for all its inhabitants.

Hani Badawi

January 7, 2021

Disruptive Technologies and Events

I think it is safe to say that disruptive technologies that have unfolded in the past 7 decades (a little less than my lifespan to date) exceeds those that have emerged in many past centuries.

This note is not intended to list the disruptive technologies of the past as these can be found in numerous articles that can easily be searched online. Instead, I will share my thoughts about the effect of disruptive events in our lives and their effect on creating a cascade of changes in our lives, be it personal, national or global.

On the personal/individual level, every time we encounter some disruption to the flow of our lives, be it driven by social, professional, health or wealth factors, we make adjustments to the way we conduct our lives and only time is the judge of whether these adjustments serve us well or not.

On the national level, by browsing the historic events for each nation it is fair to say that the evolution (rise or fall) of a nation’s health in the form of wealth, power, governance and harmony differ greatly from one nation to the next depending on the specific parameters, natural or man made) that pertain to each nation.  Like the personal level, many adjustments are made and only time is the best judge of whether these adjustments serve well the particular nation or not.  Needless to say, the changes on the national level cannot be decoupled from the changes that occur on the personal level for the citizens of each nation that they belong to.

Now comes the global level and it gets more complicated!  If we cast our minds to the disruptions that occurred in the last century (as a snapshot in history), one will observe that by linking the aforementioned personal and national disruptions (in their many complex forms and aspects) we can begin to understand what are the likely reasons for the global changes (especially man made) that have occurred and those that are still unfolding.  Once again, for the global disruptions, only time will be the judge whether or not the changes (ecologic, economic, strategic, scientific, technologic, etc.) will serve well the globe that we all share!

In all events, disruptions are the seeds of some good and some bad outcomes such as new ideas, innovations, honest and dishonest rivalries, good and bad revolutions, proxy wars, religious wars, and, in the extreme, world wars.

A myriad of movies, plays, TV documentaries, newspaper articles, poems, songs, etc. addressing all of the disruptive events and the the resulting changes that occurred over our recorded history were generated, some accurate but, unfortunately, some with bias, prejudice and often misinformation.  

In summary, disruptive events on all levels have occurred and will continue to occur over time and it is evident that the present speed of the resulting changes in our lives is mind-boggling! As individual, national and global conscience is but a manifestation of all the complex changes that have occurred over the millennia I wonder by what mechanism, if any at all, will a new disruptive event/events will this world converge to a happy ending!!

At this time we can only hope that the present disruptive Coronavirus pandemic will vanish from our lives and will serve as a lesson that we, as humans, are very vulnerable and that our hope for salvation can only lie in a form of good use of any further disruptions that will occur in our lives!

“Hope is a waking dream.” Aristotle.

Hani Badawi

August 6, 2020

Virtual Realiy

Over the past few years Virtual Reality took center stage in the worlds of education, entertainment, medicine and in a host of other fields.

In this note, however, I wish to touch on some softer aspects of the Virtual Reality term, namely how we perceive reality and how our minds occasionally drift into a world that is bordering on fantasy, be it for something we wish for or, on the other extreme, something we fear.

Needless to say, our level of fantasy is determined, amongst many other things, by the fertility of our minds.

Like a naturally fertile soil in which seeds when sufficiently irrigated and nourished will yield a healthy plant, fertile minds when supported by a depth of experience and imagination will yield good ideas that may include theories or fantasies.

Different nature of soils, e.g. acidic or alkaline, are needed for growing different plants. Likewise, if we think about fertile minds, their ability to produce a theory or a fantasy will depend on the nature of the individual mind. Some will yield theories and some will yield fiction and on a few occasions they may yield both!

Returning to the thought about perception and Virtual Reality, I believe that a novel written by a person with a fertile mind, whether it be romantic, historic fiction, science fiction, etc. or any combination of these, will take you into a virtual reality world which may in turn, depending on the fertility of your mind, help you in perceiving thoughts and ideas and perhaps allowing you to create new ones too!

Hani Badawi
November 9, 2019

Thinking Aloud

A few decades ago when I was embarking on a career in technical research I was unaware of the needed methodology for conducting and expressing my thoughts. Admittedly, I was also fearful of relaying my early thoughts lest they be incorrect or inaccurate.

At that time, the process of “Thinking Aloud” was brought to my attention by my Ph.D. Supervisor (Dr. Krante Anand) who went on to describe the importance of that process in as far as verbalizing one’s technical thoughts with the intent of honing and ultimately refining one’s research skills.

As time progressed, I realized that this was only the first step in him preparing me to enter the world of research. Soon thereafter he proceeded to guide and encourage me to continuously document my research results, to periodically submit my findings to technical journals and to present them at relevant international conferences.

Learning the above process was a lesson that had a profound impact on the evolution of my thoughts over the years and my ability to express them in writing and sharing them with others.

Of course there are other forms of thinking that I learned and used since the formative days of my career. These included amongst others: strategic thinking, critical thinking, lateral thinking and creative thinking. In the process of learning all these diverse forms of thinking, I certainly relied on my previously acquired skill of “thinking aloud”.

Many of the things we do in life are rooted in an experience we were exposed to along our life path and I’m sure that each of you must have had a similar explicit experience or multiple experiences like the one I shared here. Think about it and perhaps you may find that “thinking aloud” is useful!

Note: I owe a debt of gratitude to the late Dr. Krante Anand for his mentoring role and also our friendship that was cut short by his early departure many years ago. May his soul rest in eternal peace.


Hani Badawi
January 23, 2019

Look Inside Yourself

From time to time it is not unusual for us to spit-out critical comments, criticisms and condemnations in view of behavioral patterns and/or policies within our own society/country. I note that these feelings may be expressed with an even higher zeal and a more elevated frequency when we describe what we deem unacceptable behavioral patterns and/or policies related to other societies/countries.

What makes us do that?

The motives differ widely and are not always obvious because they depend on many factors, namely:

1- socio-cultural: (personality, attitude, lifestyle, education, health, religion, wealth, media etc.),

2- political (government, regulations, economy, treaties, constitution, etc.)

3- geographic (resources, terrain, climate, etc.)

It is noteworthy that the above stated three factors with all their sub-factors (and unnamed etceteras) are intertwined in many ways making it virtually impossible for us to reach a definitive conclusion as to what glasses we use to see and perceive the defects within any given society or country.

The more I think about the above, the more I believe that it is a bottomless-pit, because the more thought I invest in trying to understand the motives for these thought declarations, the less conclusions I’m likely to reach!

So, what should we do:

Depending on our individual core values/feelings and common sense inclinations, it would be better to direct our thoughts towards toning down the egotistic feelings and elevating our own values to better serve ourselves, our families and our societies.

Remember that, regardless of which age/social/ethnic/creed/etc. group that we belong to, our leanings, biases, convictions and other feelings may possibly have changed over time. So much so, it is somewhat hypocritical to pass judgment on behavioral patterns that we may have once adopted!

Start with positive, constructive self-criticism, work on self-improvement and back-out of general criticism.

After all, as the saying goes: Charity begins at home!

Hani Badawi
January 6, 2019

Day Dreaming!

Remember those days when we were young and carefree, when our thoughts spontaneously carried us into a future of our own making, when thoughts of feelings, places and things that we imagined transported us into a world that only existed in our mind?

That was the time in our life when our imagination was allowed to wonder freely without the physical boundaries and barriers, in there many shapes and forms, that we were to later encounter!

A very few of us may have had a fertile imagination and whose early dreams may have partially or fully been realized whereas many of us move on beyond our youthful thoughts never to go back for even a short visit of our imaginary world!  In either case, however, our life is inevitably conditioned by many factors which would have been impossible to fathom or foresee at our younger years.

What our minds may do to us at a later phase of our lives is to travel back into an imaginary world where we would conjure up making changes to our lives to effect a different course than the one we ended up charting.  

Whatever our age may be, our day dreaming may serve as a source of self entertainment. The trick is to not let that entertainment lead to disappointment or regret!

Hani Badawi

May 4, 2018

A Proud Moment

I was recently caught by surprise when I was asked by a friend to come up with a story about a time in my career when I experienced a Proud Moment. At first I had a momentary brain freeze and felt like a deer in the headlights! Luckily my memory at this stage of my life remains reasonably vivid, so, upon taking a deep breath I was able to recall one such event and I commenced to narrate my story!

The one that came to my mind took place many years ago when I had just started working for a highly innovative company where my job description entailed supervising a team of brilliant scientists most of whom had just earned their doctoral degrees from very reputable US schools.

I was thrilled by the challenge that the job promised and was amused by what my boss at that time told me. He said “I am relying on you to herd the wild cats in your group”!

Actually, when I had the chance to get to know each member of the group, it turned out that each and every one had a strong opinion about their research ideas and projections albeit some of these converged and others diverged from the vision of the company. In summary, I realized that, whereas they predominantly had fresh innovative ideas, they needed guidance on how to go about managing their ideas and time and aligning these with the company vision and mission too. A tall challenge for them as, in their graduate studies, they did not have to conform to any equivalent limitations and disciplines.

Adding to my challenge, amongst the group members, who were mostly in their mid to late 20’s, there was an older scientist in his late 30’s. Although academically adept, he was described to me by the company management as “stubborn and a poor team-player”! I will refer to him as Dr. Oldman!

At the time I took on the responsibility of managing the group, Dr. Oldman was on probation for not only the above mentioned shortcomings, but also for what was deemed to be a “below average technical performance”! At that point I realized that my job will have challenges beyond my initial impression of what to expect and how to go about it! Furthermore, based on the above shortcomings I was guided by management that I have three months to work with him on a performance recovery plan that, should he not show the expected improvements, he will be asked to look for an other job elsewhere!

At the time I joined the company I had many years of managerial experience under my belt and believed that I had the necessary skills to deal with the Dr. Oldman issue but I still feared that this was going to be a daunting challenge! Remember, this issue was only going to be a part of a bigger picture that entailed managing a group of fifteen young scientists that I needed to coach in addition to the fact that I had to learn and digest the technical details of the company’s business model and associated roadmap!

After a few sleepless nights I decided that I’m determined to devise what’s needed to make this a successful mission.

Fortunately, with the benefit of my previous experience, I was able to balance my time equitably between all of the above job requirements. Amongst many other meetings, I had weekly one-on-one meetings with each member of my group and we jointly set clear goals and tasks with clear timelines for each individual and for the team as a whole. Of course, as you can imagine, my approach for harnessing the best out of each group member needed to be aligned with their specific skill-sets and aptitudes and I’m sure you can imagine that an extra effort needed to be assigned to Dr. Oldman and, indeed, that’s exactly what I did!

Dr. Oldman initially put up some resistance to my prescribed regimen of goal-setting, ratings, etc. but he finally started being respondent by the end of the first month.

Two more months passed and Dr. Oldman continued tirelessly to work with me to prove to himself, to me and to the whole company that he is worthy of retaining his job. So much so, that at the end of his probation period he was able to demonstrate a tremendous comeback and he attained, with flying colors, all his goal targets! Needless to say, at that point I finally breathed a sigh of relief! This however was not the Proud Moment!

The Proud Moment occurred nine months later when, to my heart’s content (and teary eyes!), he received the quarterly award of “Company’s Best Innovator”.

Hani Badawi
April 17, 2018