It was a balmy July night in Bneid Al-Gar, a neighborhood in Kuwait City overlooking the Persian Gulf. Kuwait could be oppressively hot in the summer but I recall summer evenings being tolerably warm and sometimes nice. I loved Kuwait at night. …

I could hear my mom screaming on the phone in Arabic, “Bilal! Bilal! What do you mean he died from a heart attack? People in America walk away from heart attacks!” I was 16 and trying to process what couldn’t possibly be true. How could my uncle who leaped with…

A lot of people are concerned when they hear I wake up at 5 a.m. but it’s not really as dire as it might sound. — If you’ve spent any time on Medium (or YouTube for that matter), you’ve probably seen at least one article (if not two or five or ten) telling you about the benefits of waking up at 5 a.m. I can bet that the article you’ve read was written by a dude/bro…

I returned yesterday from a ten day field research trip to Helsinki. It was my first field research trip since September 2019 and my first in-person study since January 2020. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a hiatus from field work this long in my career. …

How you respond to organizational changes at work can help you learn and grow in your career — When I first started working in tech more than a decade and a half ago, I recall getting org-wide emails announcing some executive’s departure and the trickle down organizational changes. It seemed like a lot of people wanted to spend more time with their families or figure out their next…

A big part of success is showing up. — I had a couple of conversations at work this week about what I call saying yes/raising your hand. I’ve found that so much of being successful at work is really just as simple as saying yes when opportunities arise. It could be as simple as helping someone plan a fun…

The relationship you have with your manager is critical to your career growth and happiness. — A few years ago, a friend mentioned how early in her tenure at a job her manager at the time told her that she needed to make herself easy to manage. We both found the request really funny, mostly due to its bluntness. …

This past Friday (December 10, 2021) marked my nine year Googleversary! Nobody makes a big deal out of nine year anniversaries but I have been all week! When I joined Google back in late 2012, I had a major case of imposter syndrome and felt that I needed to constantly…

Fireplace progress, painting, and a fabricated bathroom countertop. — I’m less than 10 days away from moving in and this past week was a flurry of progress. I made a trip to the house almost every day this week to approve various decisions. The most exciting thing to see come together this week was all the progress on the…