Thoughts & Insights
Articles, ideas, and perspectives on technology, entrepreneurship, and digital health.
Vision 2030 isn't a slogan. It's an operating system for a country. And like any operating system, what matters isn't the announcement, it's the applications built on top of it. The founders and bui
AI Is Not the Future of Healthcare: It's the Present
After building Saudi Arabia's first virtual hospital, here's what I've learned about how AI is actually reshaping healthcare delivery today.
5 Lessons From Building Saudi Arabia's First Virtual Hospital
From a 2015 idea to $7M raised and 4M+ users: the unglamorous truths about building healthtech in Saudi Arabia.
Cybersecurity: Our Duty to Our Community
Verizon and Symantec studies reveal that just ten malicious emails are enough to breach any company with 90% success. The Dyre Wolf gang is a striking example of how cybercrime has evolved.
The Solomonic Design Principle: How to Filter for Desired Outcomes Automatically
From the wisdom of Prophet Solomon to the FillToHere line at Emery Worldwide to Van Halen's M&Ms: three stories that explain a single design principle that filters for desired outcomes with elegance.
Constructive Fights: How to Turn Disagreement Into a Building Tool
Intel runs workshops teaching employees constructive conflict. Five ideas from Bob Sutton, Debra Dunn, and Harvard Business Review for applying constructive confrontation in your workplace.
My Favorite Mistake This Year: The Story of Abu Abbas
I decided to choose the best mistake I made this year and talk about it with full transparency: hiring someone who didn't fit the team's culture taught me five priceless lessons.
Small Wins: The Progress Principle and How to Move Your Team
An entrepreneur wanted 30% growth during an economic recession. How she turned an impossible goal into a hundred yellow sticky notes and achieved more than she planned.
The Assertive Leader: The Middle Ground Between Aggression and Passivity
What is assertiveness really? Research by Daniel Ames and Frank Flynn from Columbia University, and Tommy Lasorda's pigeon metaphor: the fine line between assertiveness and its two extremes.
The True Leader is Attuned and Assertive: You Are on Stage All the Time
The Berkeley cookie experiment reveals what people do the moment they take a leadership position. Four core leadership problems and how the attuned, assertive leader overcomes them.
Routine Work vs. Innovative Work: Or When Killing Your Babies Is a Good Thing
WD-40 got its name from 39 failed attempts. A toy company starts with 4,000 ideas and ends with 3 successes. The fundamental difference between routine and innovative work, and how to lead between the two.
How to Fail the Right Way: Ten Principles for the Innovation Leader
Failure is inevitable in innovative work. The difference between a successful leader and everyone else is how they make failure small, early, safe, and generative.
How Do You Live at the Intersection? The Medici Effect and the Art of Inspiration
Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect, Diego Rodriguez, Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, and the Windows Metro design: how do you live at the intersection of humanity and technology?
Introduction to Innovation Leadership & Entrepreneurship: My Personal Journey
From KFUPM to Microsoft to Xceed Ventures: an introduction to a blog series on leading innovation, and my studies at Stanford under Professor Bob Sutton.
Innovation and Creativity: The Idea Alone Is Not Enough
Innovation = Creativity + Application. From the Apple iPod to the People magazine yearbook: how creative ideas become real innovations.
Digital Reading and Saudi Youth: A TV Interview on Al-Thaqafia Channel
In an interview on Saudi Arabia's Al-Thaqafia Channel I discussed modern digital reading: GoodReads, Amazon Kindle, and how Saudi youth are being shaped by the digital reading movement.
The Ego in the Quran
The story of the ego in the Quran is summed up in: 'Has there not come upon man a period of time when he was not a thing even mentioned' — and prayer reduces the ego and reconnects a person with their essence.
Three Stories from A New Earth: Don't Resist, Don't Judge, Don't Attach
From Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth': three profound stories that teach conscious living — So be it!, Maybe!, and This too shall pass.
Napoleon Defends the Prophet ﷺ Against Voltaire
Voltaire's 1816 play that mocked the Prophet ﷺ — and how Napoleon Bonaparte, one of Voltaire's greatest admirers, rose to defend the Prophet with remarkable words.
Farewell to My Microsoft Family
After seven incredible years, I leave Microsoft with a lifetime family, strong career, and tons of life-shaping experience. A farewell letter to the people who made it all possible.
There Are No Bad Intentions: A Theory Worth Contemplating
Is it true that all intentions are good and that only actions can be judged? A philosophical theory worth contemplating in light of the Quran and the words of philosophers.
Intellectual Property in Islam: A Lost Principle in Our Culture
Islam established the principle of intellectual property before the modern world knew it. The science of Hadith is a complete model for preserving intellectual rights. Where do we stand today?