From birth to a startup: Where do all the women disappear?

Translated from an article describing the prevalence of women in Israeli hi-tech:
http://www.themarker.com/st/c/prod/tm/2016/03/woman/timeline/4/

The three usual suspects for unhappiness

The psychologist and psychiatrist Prof. Yoram Yovell  wrote a book called Mindstorm (in Hebrew). This book describes real meetings with patients in his clinic. In the stories, Yovell shares his considerations with explanations and relevant background.

It starts with a story about a patient, a vice president of a big hi-tech company, that has everything - a good relationship, two lovely daughters, a nice house in a high-end area, an impressive career. But despite all of this, she was not happy and asked to consider medication treatment.

There are three main professional ways to treat this type of problem:
1. Psychoanalysis - Brings one to reveal his true meaning of life. Freeing himself.
2. Cognitive Behavioral - Detect and change problematic thoughts and behavioral patterns as an indirect way for changing internal feelings.
3. Medication treatment - Effective way of getting over mild masked depression.

Together, using psychoanalysis techniques they searched for the answer to the question - why isn't she happy - starting with:
The three usual suspects for unhappiness:
1. False self - Living a life that one does not truly believe in, pretending one is something else in order to satisfy the surrounding. The feeling of playing in a show. Hiding true desires, the true self. Sometimes not even being aware of this. The treatment in this situation is to reveal the truth to oneself and to the surrounding and to face the consequences (it might be hard and hurt). It's similar to a "coming out" situation.
2. Perfectionism - The striving for perfection. Life of excellence without rest. One that demands of himself naturally more than others. He does not need a "boss" to watch over his work -- he carries amongst himself the strictest supervisor that does not miss a thing and always demands more and more. Nothing is good enough. None of the accomplishments can change the negative thoughts. This kind of mentality motivates for more and more accomplishments to earn inner peace which never comes.
3. Guilty feelings - The feeling of being wrong. When one is judgmental or critical towards himself. e.g., "I'm not a good enough parent/husband/employee", "how can I have fun while he is suffering".

I guess it was not a coincidence that this character is a hi-tech worker.
Working in hi-tech is considered prestigous. Some might choose such a proffesion in order to satisfy the surrounding with money/power/respect. This is exactly false self. During the years, I have heard confessions from my colleagues junior/senior/developers/managers that they do not like what they do and wish to occupy themselves with something else.
In addition, hi-tech is also considered a demanding field. It seems to attract people with vulnerabilities for characteristics described above and fuels them. Perfectionists are often successful and in high demand. Such people are well compensated, appreciated and praised. This kind of success has a dark side - it serves the natural mechanism of positive reinforcement. The competitive environment contributes as well and being surrounded by perfectionists - make it harder and worsens. While one is used to being the best, once he enters this career path he is just a regular guy, and it is not always easy to accept the new status.
Regarding guilty feelings, when "being right" is quantified by capacity and not by office hours, when the acceptable working hours are "as much as you can", when the environment is competitive and stressing with goals and deadlines, when things are changing fast - one can always ask himself "Am I focused enough? Did I waste my time? Am I too distracted? Do I have to invest more time at work? Am I keeping up with my pace? Do I deserve this?".
Moreover, woman are even more vulnerable^ due to biological reasons (genetic tendency, fluctuating hormones) and also tend to bear the brunt of maintaining a home, bringing up children and/or caring for older relatives. These reasons cause work-family conflict stress to be more common.

On a personal note, there are times where I, too, deal with some of the aforementioned issues. Here are my tips which I have learnt over the years (some from life experience and some through others):

• Most of the time, problems fix themselves without any intervention. Let time pass and the wave will pass too.
• Using my constants -  speaking with my family or friends outside my every-day environment. It helps getting back a sense of proportion.
• When unhappiness lasts more than 2-4 months - it's time for a change.
• Thinking big - supply-and-demand are clearly in favor of hi-tech workers. There are various roles in different domains and so many different companies with unique cultures that could be appropriate and balance out a vulnerabilty. I truly believe one can find a job he is satisfied with. The opportunity exists. It requires to actively look for a fit and a bit of patience.
• Be a good parent to myself - Instead of judging, I ask myself "how would I react/think if the situation happened to my child?"
• I try to concentrate on happiness and not on quantifying - Instead of asking myself "how good am I doing my job?" I try to ask "Am I enjoying doing this or not?"
• I am where I am because I want it the most.

If you have any books\shows recommendations regarding psychology (one of my passions) I'll be happy to hear about them.

About Writing and Evaluating Patents

"Good to the righteous and good to his neighbor, woe to the evil and woe to his neighbor. Like a person that enters a perfume shop, even if he does not sell or buy, even if he does not touch anything - the smell sticks to him and does not leave him all day. The same with leather shops."
In other words - the environment influences, the environment matters.
This is a proverb from our scriptures.

IBM topped the annual list for patent recipients for the 24th consecutive year!
Being part of this leading company, makes me develop expertise in the field too.
Currently I'm an IDT (Invention Development Team) Board member. Also known as "Patent Review Board".
Our duties are to:
1. Identify and evaluate patentable inventions
2. Help/mentor inventors to make their inventions the greatest
3. Advise the IP (Intellectual Property) Law on the technology and business merits of the invention

When I first attempted to invent patents, they failed under the constrains of "non-obviousness", "novelty" or "useful". Though the definitions of the constrains was clear to me, it wasn't always clear why some patents are "patentable" while others are not.
I knew I acquired the skill of "patent evaluator" when I succeed convincing my patents-mentor about the patentability of a patent which he did not think was patentable (see hidden milestone).

Being a "patent evaluator" would not happen without my colleagues and my dear mentors for patenting:

• Omri Fuchs, my first team leader at IBM-Research, He was the first to expose me to the patent application process.
• Sima Nadler, inventor & founder of a product I worked on, who taught me what is considered a patent.
• Orith Toledo-Ronen, whom I shared an office with, presented patents data bases and taught me how to use tools in order to verify that new inventions ideas are novelty.
• Roie Melamed, my former team leader that mentored me towards implementing patentable algorithms. 
• Suzanne Erez (IPLaw Counsel), performing annual mandatory courses for new comers and increasing awareness for the importance of patents.
• Anat Laufer (HR Partner), who told me about the IDT Board.
• Flora Gilboa Solomon, my former manager that connected me to the right experts I was looking for (IDT-Board Leaders).
• Gilad Mintzer-Magal (Advocate & Patent Attorney), performing seminars related to patents & always up to answering questions.
• Michal Jacovi (IBM Master Inventor, Cognative Analytics and Solutions Invention Department Team Lead), who let me be a guest in the IDT Board in order to learn the process behind.
• Tal El-Hay (IBM Master Inventor, Health Informatics Invention Department Team Lead), who accepted me as a member in the IDT Board. 
• And of course, all board members, for hearing them arguing about the patentability of candidates-patents.
• And especially Aharon Abadi (IBM Master Inventor, IDT Board member) that generously shares his vast knowledge and always lends a helping hand. We had lots of discussions related to patents.

My first framed certificate

IBM's New Offices in Israel

I had the chance to visit the new building today.
The interior design is so colorful and joyful with an adaptive environment e.g., configurable tables.

There are private offices (no "open space" -- hooray!)

There are also cool places for meetings

 And cool places for informal meetings

Can't wait to move!!!

P.S - The view from the windows does not fall from IBM's standard (see below). What do you think?

IBM-Research Haifa

IBM-XIV (Azriely Floor 38)

The New Building
Migdaley HaShahar (floor 21)
This is currently the second tallest occupied building in Israel.

What it means to be a Researcher

Some will say, that a researcher is someone that publishes papers and is a member of a science community. They will tell you about reading and writing papers, citations, surveys, reviews, related work, evaluations, latex, conferences, workshops, collaborations, grants, postdoc, etc...

For me, a researcher is a character. A character of someone who has curiosity for knowledge and to reveal the unknown. Curiosity that leads him to ask "how could it be?"  and the courage to say "I will solve this". He also needs integrity and humbleness to say "I did not solve it yet". Research is like looking for something in a dark room, using the sense of touch. The chances for finding what you are looking for in the first try is low. So it requires patience and grit.
A researcher also has imagination full of innovation that leads towards a vision. The enthusiasm for the idea gives a sense of responsibility for carrying out this vision to become true. To build the path from the theory to its conception. A path which no one ever walked through. That makes the researcher a pioneer and one who inspires others, and requires of him to be ingenious and inventive to overcome the obstacles up and coming.

As I see researchers, they care less about monetary profit and more about having a place to express their capabilities and to bring something new to the world (it could be in the form of a published scientific paper and it could also be by creating a new product or imparting a new habit).

I aspire to be a great researcher!