PhDs and gold mining

“The research problem is like a gold mine. Once the mine has been there for a long time, you need to mine/dig deeper and deeper to find a piece of gold. If a research problem has been exhausted, you have to work harder to find something new.”

My adviser

The dilemma: It is difficult to find new solutions to classic research problems since many researchers had already studied the problem. Nevertheless, new research problems are also difficult because you have to establish the path to the mine before finding the gold, no one to follow or seek help from.

The moral of the story: Intelligence can get you a PhD but luck can lead you to the gold faster than yours or your adviser’s expectation.

Recommended reading: Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

A lesson in world geography

Subject: A conversation between me and a salesperson who wanted to exchange pleasantry, mistakenly thinking I am a rich tourist, before trying to sell me something which I forgot what it was.

Place: South Asia

Time: 1998

sp: Hello!

jaraad: Hi!

sp: Where are you from?

jaraad: Jordan

sp: Oh! Where is that? (smiling)

jaraad: It is near Iraq. (At that time I assumed everyone knows Iraq because of the Kuwait invasion and desert storm, etc.)

sp: I am not sure where that is.

jaraad: You know, near Saudi Arabia. (Thinking he should have seen pictures on TV of Muslims, Hajj, Mecca (Makkah), etc)

sp: I am sorry. (Shaking his head with some embarrassment)

jaraad: You know Palestine and Israel? (I though again okay there is no way he never heard of the Middle East conflict. This is it!)

sp: (still have no clue where in the world are all these countries.) Is it somewhere near Argentina?

jaraad: Exactly!

You may think that this salesperson was trying to goof around or make fun of this foreigner but no he was an extreme case of no geographic sense what so ever.

When to quit?

“Yeah, I’m a great quitter. It’s one of the few things I do well. I come from a long line of quitters. My father was a quitter, my grandfather was a quitter… I was raised to give up.” George Costanza (Seinfeld)

Beside “quit smoking” or “quit drinking/drugs”, the word quit is usually looked at as a negative behavior. We are taught not to quit and learned that only losers quit. What people don’t like to admit is that sometimes quitting requires courage. Quitting your cubical job to follow your dream job somewhere else requires gut. Parents may get a heart attack if they just hear that their son or daughter planning to quit school to start his/her own business. It is something almost never heard of especially in Jordan where people, mistakenly, believe that one can’t survive without a college degree.

I am not pro-quitting but I think quitting is overrated. When to quit is man’s worst decision making dilemma. In our social life, there are many scenarios that I can think of were quitting is good. The most important one is the decision that a married couple has to make when their marriage is right on the edge. Should they continue hoping that things will become better? How long they should stay together before they decide that their marriage is no longer possible? In some cases divorce might save their lives and their kids’ future.

The department of transportation came up with a brilliant idea to save money and time for both the drivers and the rest of the world. They planted “Dead End” signs at the entrance of every neighborhood that leads to nowhere. Unfortunately, we don’t have such privilege in our life. We have to struggle before we find that we reached a dead end.

In the research field, there is no crystal clear answer to when should a PhD or a researcher stop or quit his research if he is working tirelessly with no gain. Pursuing a dead end research is a waste of money, time, and one’s self. How far should a PhD student or a researcher go before he decides that his efforts will lead him no where? No one can answer this question or find a formula to when to quit because no one knows the future.

On the other hand, should one pursue his dream whatever the consequences. Believing that his tireless efforts may one day lead him to success? Thomas Edison said “I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.” Imagine how many years humans would have lived with no light bulb if Edison quitted his dream after his 999 trial.

So, the everlasting question is should one quit when things are not in his favor or continue hoping for the best? Also, when one should decide to quit before wasting years on something that may lead him to a dead end eventually?

Be nice to your students

Last summer, one of my students was pulled over on suspicion of driving erratically. After searching the car, they found his mother’s body wrapped in a blanket next to a shovel in the trunk. I can’t give details about this crime but last year I was in shock. I am very happy I was nice to him. He looked normal in class. Actually, he was an “A” student.

Note to self: Be nice to the students.

Education = Observe + Learn + Share

In the U.S., Graduate Engineering Schools normally are full of foreigners (I am referring to people who English is not their first language). If you are doing a Master’s or a PhD in computer science or electrical engineering you may never have an American classmate in any of your program’s required classes. A Chinese lab-mate told me that during his two year masters he never took a class that was taught by an American. All his professors were Chinese except for one Lebanese and one Indian.

Last semester (Spring 09), I took a graduate level course. The course was research oriented. Such classes usually have no exams but students are required to do some sort of a small research project. The project is usually presented twice; first time during the midterm in front of the instructor and the students and the second time during the finals. All the students in this class including the instructor were foreigners. The students’ presentation sucked big time. Generally, because the instructor didn’t explain to the students what he is expecting from them and because he assumed that all students have at least some sort of experience in presentation skills an assumption that was definitely not true.

The education here is based on observe, learn, and share rather than read, learn, and reserve as in the Middle-East. In observe, learn, and share method students learn by watching and observing things. They go to the zoos, visit museums, take trips somewhere, etc. Students need then to share their experience with the other students in class in a form of an oral presentation and a written report. The teacher will evaluate the students based on their presentations and reports. While this method might look like something that is used in precollege only it is actually used in college as well. Undergrad students do lots of oral presentations and written reports. Students are not only evaluated through their success in exams. Evaluating students’ Critical Thinking is something very important in education.

In the Middle-East and some parts of the world the read, learn, and reserve method is unfortunately still being used till this time. Students in both precollege programs and colleges read and learn from books and they keep what they have learned to themselves because they never share it with the other students through presentations. They are only evaluated through exams.

During my 12 years in school and four years in college as far as I can recall I have never stood in front of the class to present a project. Actually, the only times I was asked to stand in front of the students were either to be scolded or punished by the teacher. In general, this is the case for almost all the students in the Middle-East. We have no experience in giving an oral presentation or commenting on a presentation.

As a Jordanian who is hoping to one time go back and be a college professor I believe we need to change our education methodology in both schools and universities. We need to teach students to evaluate, analyze, and share the information they learn. Better we need to prepare them to business-oriented projects or research-oriented fields. Our students learn to receive the information only not to evaluate it or criticize it! It is a shame that a 21 years old fresh college graduate doesn’t know how to write a report or give a presentation in front of people.

Social Networking Websites and the Future

One of the many reasons USA is leading the world is the way they continuously try to close the gap between the young generation and the adult generation. Social networking websites such as MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, and twitter all started with the young generation in mind but boomed, exponentially, when the older generation started to adapt to this new era of communication.

In 2008, the strong support of the young was one of the keys for Mr. Barack Obama to the White House.

“Fending off accusations of apathy, youth voters turned out to the presidential election in historic numbers, exceeding the turnout of their grandparents’ generation and swinging at least two states for President-elect Barack Obama.” [link]

The Americans knew the power of the young so they tried hard to reach them wherever they are. In the new era of communication, the young were hanging around the social networking websites. Intuitively, the adult moved there as well. Nowadays, many celebrities and world leaders like Barack Obama (http://twitter.com/barackobama ) tweets on twitter.

The young generation is the future. The closer the gap between the young and the adult, the smarter we become. Unfortunately, in the Arab world the only tone we hear from the adult is that the young are slackers and astray. Even if we don’t like some or many of their behaviors they are the one who will find solutions for problems we caused and they are the one who will continue building this life on earth. Instead of just preaching let us listen to them and hear what they have to say. The link between the future and the young is intelligently described by Christa McAuliffe who was a teacher and one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger (1986): “I touch the future. I teach.” Teaching is a great process that requires speaking [to the students] and listening [from them]. Without this two-way communication the process of teaching is doomed.

Web 2.0

Did you notice how Google give you a list of items when you write in the search text box? Try searching for “University of ” and Goggle will provide a list of universities. This new era of internet is called Web 2.0. Of course it is much more than that but the idea is to speed the internet and reduce reloading from the server. Here is a must have Web 2.0 directory. Think of a web service that you would like to see in the internet and most probably you will find it here.

http://www.go2web20.net/

The Etiquettes of using the Cell Phone

For Allah’s sake when you speak on your cell phone lower your voice or go somewhere away from people. We the unpopular human beings have no interest what so ever in hearing your conversation. We got it you are popular, you are important, you are the lover, and you are the problem solver. Yet, please take your conversation, your beloved valued cell phone, and over the air distant friend away from us. I wonder why you think others are interested in hearing your conversation, is it because you have personality issues.

But there is always this angel-behaving person. One time I was enjoying my coffee during a very pleasant weather at the patio of It’s A Grind. I was working on my boring and straight to the library’s shelves dissertation. In my company, were my lovely green (my favorite color) Dell Inspiron laptop, couple of books, scattered research papers, and my black American unsweet (actually, sugarless) coffee. I think because it was during a weekday and at around 3 pm, I was the only one enjoying the sun at the patio. Oh, the sun I love you, I adore you. Later on, a girl in her mid 20s sat in a table nearby. After a short time she looked toward my table and, politely, said “excuse me; I am going to make couple of phone calls if you don’t mind.” Or maybe she said “I hope I don’t disturb you.” I forgot what exactly she said but it was something well-mannered. I answered positively. Even though we were in an open space she kept her voice low minding that some people (that is, me) will be annoyed or distracted. I was shocked; I didn’t expect that some people are still that nice and courteous when it comes to using their cell phones.

On the other hand, you may be in a quite closed space like a waiting room or some nice coffee shop and the only voice that is breaking the quietness is this moron’s voice speaking so loudly on his/her cell phone. You think to yourself I wish I can do something about it but then you refrain from taking any action because you are so coward and decide to take it like a 13 years old girl and write about it in your pinky journal or maybe in some cases your wordpress.com.

One last thing I want to mention is that some people are really obsessed with their cell phones. They will interrupt a face-to-face conversation to answer their cell phone without even saying anything to the person in front of them. This is very rude. We teach our kids to well behave and always say “Thank you” and “Please” why can’t we teach ourselves to well behave when using a new communication technology like the cell phone.

Friday in Jordan vs. USA: Chronological Comparison Study

This is a one day chronological comparison study of some Muslims¹ in Jordan vs. USA.

USA

AM: Wake up

AM: Go to school

PM (noon): Eat light lunch (most probably a turkey sandwich)

PM (around 1pm): Got to the only Mosque in town. (Bigger cities have about 5 or 6 mosques. But they are far from each other so you choose to go the nearest one)

PM: Listen to a boring English Khutba about the basics in Islam. Don’t expect to learn anything new.

PM: Fifteen minutes mingling with the guys.

PM: Go back to school.

Jordan

AM: Sleep

AM: Don’t wake up. You still have couple of hours, why the rush.

PM (noon): Wake up

PM: Go to your favorite Mosque

PM: Determine during the Khutba that you will not come to this Mosque again and decide to go to a different one next time. (We will skip the 101 reasons you think of during the khutba)

PM: Go back home as fast as you can

PM: You appreciate the smell of the Mansaf (the traditional Jordanian food)

PM: Your Mom tells you that the family has to wait Dad.

PM: While you wonder if you can wait any longer and what took your father all that time (the uncountable seconds in the 10-20 minutes) your father is home.

PM: Dig in through the Mansaf like it is your last meal

PM: Sleep

________________________________________________________

¹ Expatriate students in the USA.

Geo Flickr

This is really very cool feature in Flickr. Search for pictures in your favorite place. Also, very good for wasting time.

http://www.flickr.com/map/