Israel's Incredible Ingenuity

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Israel's Incredible Ingenuity."

What an extraordinary week it has been for the Mossad, Shin Bet, and IDF. Through meticulous planning and flawless execution, they successfully thwarted an assassination attempt on Israel’s leadership, infiltrated Hezbollah’s supply chain, neutralizing thousands of terrorists equipped with newly acquired pagers and tactical radios, and effectively dismantled the entire leadership of Hezbollah’s Radwan Special Forces.

At its core, this is one of the miracles of modern-day Israel: technology, science, and human ingenuity coexist and thrive alongside tremendous faith in the Almighty. With the literal miracles witnessed this week, I believe more and more people are recognizing the hand of G-d behind it all.

(AI generated image via Designer)

Israel's Incredible Ingenuity

Your Not Paid To Think

(Credit Photo: Dossy Blumenthal)

Your Not Paid To Think

Archer Flying Car

(Credit Photos: Michelle Blumenthal)

Archer Flying Car

If Pharaoh Had AI

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "If Pharaoh Had AI."

From manufacturing to customer service to law enforcement and defense, AI could one day be in the driver’s seat while we are off sunning on some remote beach in the Caribbean. As an example, just imagine a future military in which wars are fought by autonomous drones in the air and sea and killer robots on land, led by a master AI core at the Pentagon in control of all global operations, including our triad of nuclear warheads.

In short, the message for Passover isn’t just the tremendous potential of AI for the good or even the threat it poses of becoming too powerful to control, but what happens when the bad guys (dictators, despots, and megalomaniacs), like the Pharaoh of yesteryear, are dangerously using AI to enslave the world to their vision of hate and contempt for democracy, human rights, and freedom for us all?

(Credit Photo: Ilnur Dulyanov via https://pixabay.com/illustrations/square-soldier-green-red-angry-7871431/)

If Pharaoh Had AI

GameStop Is Going Nowhere

This is what GameStop is selling. 

- Wrestling Buddies dolls 

Cute, but not really a shopping imperative and the store was deserted. 

Yet, GameStop stock is still stratospheric, while tech and innovation is in the graveyard depths.

The world is upside down and inside out. 

I think a day of reckoning is coming to bring us back to earthly reality.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

GameStop Is Going Nowhere

Israel: A Uniquely Jewish Miracle

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Israel: A Uniquely Jewish Miracle."

What a difference 73 years of the State of Israel makes! While the anti-Semites and anti-Zionists out there like to call us occupiers, colonizers, and an Apartheid state, it couldn’t be any further from the truth. The Jews are indigenous to Israel for four thousand years, and it is the Promised Land by G-d to our forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moreover, Israel is a free and democratic nation driven to equality and progress, and with outstanding opportunity for all that are able to live peacefully together.

From a historical perspective, it is absolutely clear that after the Jewish people had been forcibly expelled by the Romans in the year 134, Israel fell into a state of wasteland and utter desolation...Contrast what Mark Twain and the others saw for hundreds of years in terms of the ruin, decline, and depopulation of the so-called “Palestine” (as named by the Romans “Syria Palaestina” to delegitimize the Jews from their promised homeland) with what Israel is today, and it is nothing short of a truly miraculous transformation back to its essence as the Garden of Eden.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Israel: A Uniquely Jewish Miracle

Israel Is Tops

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Israel Is Tops."

In just 73 years, with G-d’s miraculous help, we have a Jewish State that is top-ranked in the entire world: Israel is ranked overall #30 in Best Countries in the World.

In our 4,000 year history as a people, we suffered long and painful exile at the hands of the Babylonian and Roman Empire, but then in 1948, we were given another miraculous chance for the Jewish State of Israel. So far, we are doing great by all measures; now we have to make sure to keep it up for good.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Israel Is Tops

The Nail That Stands Out

So everyone knows what happens to the nail that stands out...

It gets hammered down!

Deviation from the norm or the groupthink is met with a resounding klop on the head. 

You conform or you face the guillotine. 

Way too dystopian. 

Freedom, individuality, diversity, self-expression—these are the engines of innovation and growth. 

If every nail gets hammered down, you have a society that implodes with inbreeders and Stone Age stale ideas. 

Tradition is one thing, a closed mind is something that is an extinction level event. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Nail That Stands Out

Innovation: Finding The 3rd Alternative

There are two quotes on innovation that I came across recently that I liked and wanted to share:

The first by David Ben-Gurion:

If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert. 

The second by Shimon Peres:

When you have two alternatives, the first thing you have to do is to look for the third that you didn't think about, that doesn't exist.

Both of these smart thinkers understood that solutions and innovation means breaking previous paradigms and thinking outside the box.

They got it absolutely right! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Innovation: Finding The 3rd Alternative

Israel 2020: Day 5

Went to the Holon Design Museum (south of Tel Aviv) today. 

They had exhibit called States of Extreme.

I found some really cool exhibits and ideas there.

Sort of felt my mind being expanded by it, which is I suppose one of the purposes of going to this. 

Two of my favorite from today:

1) The chair with people legs and 

2) The Fanuc robotic arm feeding the baby in the crib.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did. 

And Shabbat Shalom to everyone from the Holy Land!

(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Israel 2020: Day 5

Making The Impossible, Possible

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Making The Impossible, Possible."

Even though the Jewish people are a tiny minority in the world, through our faith, determination, and the help of G-d, we are able to survive against all odds, contribute to the world far beyond our mere numbers, and succeed in truly incredible ways. From Einstein, Freud, and Marx to Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison, we are a people that punches way above our weight.

I believe the lessons of faith and determination is one that we can all take away from the tests of our forefathers in the Bible to the flourishing modern State of Israel and to how we live our own lives today. G-d tests all of us, and if we go forward and answer His calling with a full heart and perseverance, G-d will help us to succeed above our wildest of dreams and even beyond the very laws of nature.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Making The Impossible, Possible

Square Watermelons

I thought this was pretty novel. 

A square watermelon. 

Why do you need a square watermelon?

It was created to make transportation easier and to fit on the tight shelves of small stores in Japan. 

How do you make a round/oval watermelon square?

Why of course, you put a box around it while it's still small and on the vine. 

Ah, I think they broke the mold on this innovative idea.  LOL

The problem is that that because they are harvested before they are ripe, they are inedible. 

So the Japanese use them for decorations, and they can last about a year. 

They are so unique, they cost roughly $100 for one. 

Why be square, when you can be round? ;-)

(Credit Photo: Defense Acquisition University)

Square Watermelons

Interplanetary Travel - Coming Soon

Awesome presentation on Interplanetary Travel by Charlie Kuehmann, VP Materials Engineering at SpaceX and Tesla. 

Interplanetary travel and colonization is one of the most exciting possibilities for mankind.  

It's all just beginning (we've only been in orbit for about 50 years). 

One of the keys Charlie mentioned at SpaceX and Telsa is how quickly we learn. 

It's okay to fail, as long as we learn quickly and progress from it.  

The progress with reusable rockets at SpaceX is impressive. 

Can't wait for more to come soon.  ;-)

(Credit Video: Andy Blumenthal)

Interplanetary Travel - Coming Soon

That Decisive Qualitative Edge

So I am reading this book called "Israel's Edge."

It's basically about their elite genius program, "Talpiot," in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).  

Each year the program accepts only the top 50 out of 100,000 graduating high school students for a 9-year commitment. 

There are the mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists that help give the IDF the cutting edge in military R&D and other innovations. 

These are the brain trust behind Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system and Trophy tank active protection system and many more both military and industrial advances. 

This program was born after the almost disastrous 1973 Yom Kippur War where Israel misjudged the intelligence and the advances in their enemies capability and almost lost the war. 

I like the philosophy of General Yitzhak Ben-Israel who understands the importance of challenging the status quo and looking differently at critical situations and avoiding confirmation bias:

My method is not to look for supporting evidence. I look for refuting evidence...you see one white swan, then a second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. You still can't conclude that all swans are white...nature builds us to be inductive, to make generalizations from past experience...this standard way of scientific thinking can be limiting and destructive."

Instead we must be continuously curious, think outside the box, be creative, and innovate. 

Especially, where we don't have a quantitative advantage like with Israel surrounded by many enemies, then we must rely on a very sharp qualitative edge. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal) 

That Decisive Qualitative Edge

Cheesecake Heaven

So I never met a piece of cheesecake that I didn't like. 

This was an awesome display of the varieties of it at the Cheesecake Factory.

I remember my mom used to make a pretty darn great cheesecake (and a lot of other good food)!

I still can see the graham cracker crust with the sweet hot creamy cheese filling coming out of the oven. 

Unfortunately one of the conundrum of life is that all the good tasting things are so darn fattening and bad for us. 

I think though if they can make fake burgers like Beyond that taste like the real thing, then surely at some point they will figure out how to make a skinny cheesecake that tastes good. 

There are still some mysteries left in this universe for us to unravel. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Cheesecake Heaven

Breakthrough Hybrid Car Technology

Saw this photo on Facebook.

Thought this was just too excellent. 

Yes, a new hybrid car.

- The chassis goes one way.

- The passenger compartment goes the other way. 

Was the engineer on hallucinogenics? 

Or perhaps, this is some super secret new technology for easy parallel parking. 

Think about it, if the car is driverless than what difference does it make anyway? ;-)

(Source Photo: Facebook)

Breakthrough Hybrid Car Technology

Goals Vs. Tactics

I liked this saying from someone in the IDF. 

Be "flexible in tactics, but stay fixed on the goals!"

There are many ways to accomplish the same thing. 

And different people have their own approaches. 

As in the lyrics: "You take the high road and I'll take the low road."

That's absolutely okay. 

In fact, that's one of the strengths and benefits of diversity.

We bring different ways of looking at the world to the table.

Hence, we can bounce fresh ideas off each other and come to a great way forward. 

The main thing is that we focus on our goals and progress to achieve them. 

Be rigid on goals and flexible in tactics. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Goals Vs. Tactics

The Humanity of Routine

People are creatures of habit. 

They form routines and function with relative comfort and efficiency within that. 

And for the most part, we can recognize our own patterns in life. 

Get up, brush our teeth, dress, daven (pray), go to work and so on. 

After a while, you can do it mostly in your sleep. 

We sort of become like automatons. 

Flip the switch and we go.

When routine and structure become so rigid that we can no longer improvise or innovate then we have a big problem in higher order functioning. 

But also when we break people's structures and habits, we find that they can quickly lose their sh*t. 

People need to control their time and maintain their patterns of life. 

Therein lies a certain safety and comfort in that repetitive doing.

You know what you're doing--you've done it before, so you can do it again.

If you strip a person of their control over their time and the structure of their behavior, they are truly naked and in much more than a physical sense.  (They articulated this in The Punisher, Season One, on Netflix)

All of a sudden they don't know what to do or how to do it. 

Do they go crazy, breakdown, or tell you everything you want to know. 

Torture is not just physical, but also mental and emotional. 

It is not hard to take away something so simple and a person is no longer a full person anymore. 

People need solid coping as well as survival skills to deal with the unknown.

Finally, appreciate when everything is more or less under control, because that's truly a blessing.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Humanity of Routine

Ocean of Words

I really like this phrase from a book that I'm reading called "Like Dreamers."

An ocean of words and a desert of ideas.

Too often, we hear people who like to hear themselves talk, think very highly of themselves, show off, or just spout away. 

And while they say a lot...

There may not be a lot there. 

New ideas, thoughts, ways of looking at things, innovation, creativity, outside the box thinking--that's like a desert!

In Yiddish (and it's always funnier in Yiddish), we say:

A big, big mouth, and a tiny, tiny head.

Similarly, in Hebrew, there is phrase that translates to:

Say a little, and do a lot. 

Sometimes, the smartest people are the ones who use their words wisely, strategically, with depth and meaning, and when they really have something to say.

It's at that time that you better be listening.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Ocean of Words

Being Jewish and Proud

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Being Jewish and Proud."

With roughly 15 million Jews in a world of 7.7 billion people, we make up less than .2% of the world population. However, despite our small size, we’ve been recognized with over 20% of the Nobel Prizes for contributions to the sciences, medicine, literature, economics, and peace. Most Jews tend to believe not only in a strong core religious education, but in higher education and lifelong learning, and others excel even when starting out and innovating from their garages. From Abraham and Moses to Einstein and Freud, and even to today’s Jews leading the Technology revolution–such as Steve Ballmer, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg–the Jewish contribution is truly unparalleled.

Until Mashiach, there will always be some people that hate on us and want to destroy us–perhaps and unfortunately, that’s just who they are. But we choose not be anyone else but Jews, because that’s who we are–and there is every reason to be ourselves, maintain our faith of thousands of years, continue to make awesome contributions that benefit mankind, and be forever proud to be a Jew.

(Photo Credit: Andy Blumenthal)

Being Jewish and Proud