Tag / ideas

by Fadi Zaghmout

Writers and blank pages


It is true what they say about writers and blank pages. As I wanted to start writing my next book yesterday, I sat in a cafe and opened the laptop, opened a new document on pages, and had a full blank page staring at me.


30 minutes later it was still blank. Thoughts racing in my head, how to start? where to start? the scene, the line?


60 minutes later it was still blank. Thoughts wrestling in my head. Which to eliminate? Which to keep? what sounds promising? anything exciting to start with?


90 minutes later it was still bank. I started to worry. Am I unable to start a new book? or the idea of the new book is all wrong? it is an ambitious project that I won’t be able to complete? Did I lose my magic?


At that point I had an idea to explore. Wrote first line, then deleted it. Rephrase. Rephrase again, and again. Don’t be too critical I tell myself, I continue, finishing a paragraph. The idea becomes clearer, it branches into other ideas, putting it into words, shaping it up, the character has a voice.


120 minutes later I had 3 paragraphs written. I am pleased about the beginning and the direction I will take in the book. I stop writing and feel excited about the next session.

Photo Credit: ASHLEY EDWARDS

by Fadi Zaghmout

Random big thoughts


Sometimes I wish I have the time and expertise to change fields completely, study science, math and physics in depth and contribute to the human knowledge in a way or another. Unfortunately, that will remain a dream for me for the time, and maybe forever, I don’t know. But it doesn’t prevent me from reading scientific articles and wandering in thoughts of potential solutions to existential questions. And here I’d like to share with you some of them that I would explore if given the chance:

First thought:

It is big I know! and is related to our quest to send colonise Mars. And while I am not an astronomer and have little know of space beside popular science. I am wondering if there are any celestial of adequate size roaming the space between earth and Mars that we can use as stations in our future trips. We have always learnt that we have numbered planets in our solar system and that’s fine, but might it be that there are many other smaller objects orbiting the sun? objects we haven’t paid attention to and can be beneficial to us?

Can someone tell Elon Musk to explore this? It might help him achieve his dream!

Second thought:

As you know, I am very interested in the scientific advancement in biotechnology, especially those focusing in understand the ageing process and reversing it. Few months ago, a study revealed a link between gum bacteria and Alzheimer. From what I understood, it is our immune system reaction to build protective proteins shell around brain cells in order to protect it from bacteria infiltration, causing these cells to loose communication and develop the disease.

I suspect that a similar process plays a role in developing many of other age related diseases. From my read to Aubrey De Grey’s book “Ending Ageing”, I understand that the same happens to our arteries of protein accumulation over time that makes them lose their elasticity and ending in causing us strokes and heart problems. It could be like Alzheimer, an immune system reaction to protect body cells from bacteria infiltration.

I believe that Rheumatoid Arthritis is no different as well, and I think that if we focus our research in understanding the role of our microbiome in our ageing, we might be able to fix it.

Third thought:

It is about alien life! And yes, I understand the math and probability of having all those trillions planets without us detecting any form of life outside our planet. It is mind boggling and don’t make any sense. Looking at the diversity of life on our planet and the trillions of species who lived and are alive on this earth, one would wonder if that is not the case all over the universe. Having read Dan Brown’s “Origin” and the theory that states it is physical laws that predicts animate beings to pops out of inanimate objects, which very logical, then life on earth shouldn’t be that special and other celestial objects should be like microwaves with corn seeds popping life all over the space.

I think that there is something in our capabilities of seeing life on other planets. There is something that prevent us from seeing. Otherwise, life on Mars should be as diverse and common as it is here on earth.

Time will tell.

And yes my last thought is about time and space and Einstein’s theory of relativity and modern physics. I admit that I find it very difficult to understand modern physics theory and I was relieved to read the other day an article stating that maybe we are wrong trying to find a unifying theory for the universe by looking into smaller and smaller objects. And I totally agree with that. I think that we desperately need to a new model of describing the universe. We need to get out of the limitation of the time space model and think broader.

And no guys, I am not high on anything tonight!

by Fadi Zaghmout

I am a blogger and will stay a blogger


I love blogging! I haven’t been doing that much in the past few years and I have always rationalized that it is due to the lack of time or ideas to talk about. But suddenly, this week, a fresh new energy popped up, and I found myself blogging, almost every day. And today is my second blog post too!

And I just realized that it is the act of blogging itself that I really enjoy. It is the act of talking to myself, and putting my thoughts into words. Yes, I can see now that contrary to what I partially used to think:

  1. I no longer blog to change the world. I have my novels for that.
  2. I don’t blog to get good traffic and exposure. I used to care about this 13 years back when I started blogging. Not anymore.
  3. I don’t blog to start heated discussions. I used to enjoy this a lot, but not sure I do anymore.
  4. I don’t want to be a fashionista or Instagram influencer. I am a blogger and will stay a blogger (slash novelist :P).

I blog because it feels good and I enjoy it. I blog because it is a learning tool, a creative act and a creation platform. It is like meditation to me. Listening to my internal voice, my honest self, brining it up and shaping it into written words.

I simply love it!

by Fadi Zaghmout

Our Habits, our Traditions… and our imaginations!


“Imagination is more important than knowledge” Albert Einstein

Another tip from the idea book.

Learn to ignore what you have learnt

How many of us can do that?

Fosbury did. He was a high jumper and medicine student. He participated in the Mexico Olympics in 1968. The point of the high jump is to jump over a horizontal bar. The one jumping the highest is the winner. At that time, there were two ways of jumping over the bar: Dive over or Hurdle over.

Forsbury began to study how the human body works, and realized that the smartest way of jumping over a high bar is not diving or hurdling but in fact jumping with his back to the bar!

BUT how much creativity is appreciated in our culture?

People have this tendency of sticking to familiar things. New ideas and ways of thinking do threaten the norms that people made peace with and are accustomed to. In Europe they had the tendency to burn creative women at stake and call them witches. They might have break off this kind of mentality as the human perspective matured and realized the importance of creativity for the progress of human being societies.

but what about us? How much are we still bind to that way of thinking? Doesn’t *our culture* consider *our habits* and *our traditions* SACRED?

“An idea is fragile” Charle Browe said… “It can be killed by a scornful smile or yawn. It can be mowed down by irony and scared to death by a cold look”

How does a new idea stand against a culture that demonize innovation and trash creativity? Is this part of why we are trailing behind other nations at this point of time where there are much restrictions on our imaginations that kills any attempt of bringing up new things that help us progress?

Would our new generation break up from the bondage of our current culture and fly in the sky of their imaginations?

by Fadi Zaghmout

Licky Licious and the idea book


Licky Licious sales have fallen dramatically in the past two months, first it was Ramadan, and then the continuous drop in temprature. My and my business partner have also been busy, watching the sales going down in a negative attitude, and wondering what does it mean with the approching of winter, and whether we are going to survive through it or not. We were thinking that maybe we can close it through the winter and open back in Spring. This is an option if it didn’t manage to carry up the running expenses.

For a first year in business of a new place, I think that Licky Licious would take a ‘C’ mark. We didn’t profit, but we managed to cover up the expenses and the rent of next year. We did a lot of mistakes, and learnt how to handle a lot of stuff. We managed to add some items to our menu that we didn’t think of when we opened last march. We are optimistic of next year and hoping for better performance.

The big question now is: How are we going to survive winter?

As I said above, the attitude we had was like we will see as it goes! and didn’t have any insight about it. But then, I was just reading the idea book which I brought back with me from Sweden. One of the tips is to write down your ideas so that not to lose them, another one is to try to come up with as many ideas as possible because eventhough not all ideas are good, if you come up with 10, it is more likely that one of them is good, no?

I wrote down few ones that I like to share with you:

1. To find more time to see my business partner. We both are busy and find it hard to sit down and talk about the shop. This should change.

2. Brain storm with friends. Friends can be a treasure of ideas. I love to hang out with friends, and asking for good ideas for LL would be an entertaining discussion. You guys as well can help me here. If you have any idea in your head, just pop it here. I would appreciate it so much. We need to survive the winter.

3. Tea: Adding tea to our menu sounds like a good idea. Hassan, our empolyee told me today that more than one person asked for it, and that people are asking Cafeteria Al Quds for some tea with their falafel instead of pepsi. What do you think?

4. Jumpo ice cream: hehehe, I haven’t tried it yet, but I was thinking of having several scoops in a large cup, the one we serve slush in it now, and add some smashed biscuits, bananas, and whip cream! Go for more ice cream this winter, no?

5. I was thinking of having this special offer in rainy days, like having two scoops for 1.2 jd instead of 1.6 jd now. I need to discuss all of this wih my business partner first, but it sounds like a good idea for me. When it rains, think of special offers at Licky Licious.

6. The idea board: We have a pin board in Licky Licious, we haven’t used it for anything useful lately. I am thinking of buying some sticky notes, and have pens for people to write down ideas to improve the place. That should be fun, and easy to implement.

7. This is a special offer I talked to my business partner with and we are ready to start, maybe starting from after tomorrow. It goes like “Buy two scoops and get a cookie for free”. Our cookies are so good. You have to try it.

Let me know what you think, and what ideas do you have.