This week I became a Googler! Or, more precisely, a Noogler (New Googler in the company jargon). As many of you know, I recently terminated my employment with Vocollect in order to start working for Google. As an aside, I should mention a notable difference between the Israeli high-tech market and the American one. While in Israel leaving a company gets you many "you traitor!"-like responses, the basic attitude in the US is that people normally move on after some time. For the most part, the response I got at Vocollect was "Congratulations!", which is a tribute to the company and my past colleagues there.
Anyway, I spent my first week at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. And what a fascinating week it was! I assume each and every one of you has heard of Google, though I'm not sure how familiar you are with the details. Google was and is growing at an astounding pace. Not even a decade since it was founded, the company has well over 10,000 employees and is considered one of the major players in the technology industry. In each of the past 2 quarters Google recruited more than 1500(!) Nooglers, bringing the rate to well over a hundred new employees per week. And the week I joined was no different from any other. On the down side, it almost felt like enlisting in the army again. On the up side, the luxurious "service" conditions more than made up for it ;-)
Google is considered by many the best employer in the US, in terms of employee satisfaction. I can fully understand why after a week in the Googleplex. The Mountain View campus is ENORMOUS! It's comprised of numerous not-very-tall-but-fairly-fancy buildings, and spans a huge area. To allow easy transportation between buildings if one prefers not to walk, there are free bikes and scooters all over the place. Equipment such as laptops and desktops is top of the line. Generally speaking, the attitude is that as an employee you can have whatever will make you happier and more productive, and then some. In Mountain View, the company provides day-care for employees' kids, on-site doctors, massages, free laundry and more. But the most notable perk has to do with food. All employees have a constant free supply of food. The campus hosts more than 10 gourmet restaurants, and you can dine free of charge – breakfast, lunch and dinner. That easily explains the "Google 15" rule, according to which a Noogler gains 15 pounds (circa 7 kg) within a short amount of time. I must say that I was quite overwhelmed by this wealth, and made a big effort to beat the statistics. Not sure if I succeeded...
In terms of organizational behavior and culture, Google is like nothing else. It'd be fair to say that it's a big corporation that sticks to its start-up mentality. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. It's just highly unusual. One central characteristic is the striking difference between the secrecy outwards and the total openness internally. Once you've passed the recruiting process and joined the company, pretty much everything is at your fingertips (the main exception is information about users, for privacy reasons). The level of access to information is really overwhelming, and my main task in the first few weeks will be to start digesting the relevant information and more importantly learning to ignore or defer irrelevant information. It is no secret that this is not one of my strengths, but I'll have to learn. I simply have no choice, and I hope that working in the much-smaller Pittsburgh office will also make it somewhat easier.
Technologically, there is so much going on, and so much cutting-edge fascinating technology being developed inside Google. In some unexplainable way, despite the somewhat chaotic feeling, the resulting technology and innovations are jaw-dropping. And even more importantly, I'm going to be surrounded by many brilliant engineers, from whom I can learn so much from. Heaven! So, I truly hope that the coming months will live up to my expectations. I'll conclude here, as I'm on board an airplane, and the battery in my shiny new Mac laptop is running low. By the way, this trip was my first kidless flight in more than 4 years! A refreshing change by itself...
Hugs and kisses,
Giora
PS: To avoid total lack of new updates about the girls, I'll simply substitute the verbal blabbing with a Picasa link, where you can find numerous photos, including recent ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora
Monday, September 3
Tuesday, May 8
The wonders of Paternity leave (and - Israel, here we come for a visit!)
It's been a while since I last wrote about what's going on with us in Pittsburgh. And there's a LOT to tell! Indeed, we're going to Israel tomorrow, and we'll get to see many of you. However, chances are that we won't have the time to verbally cover all the aspects with each of you, so I figured a posting might be a good idea.
All in all, the past few months were fairly hectic on our end, owing to several different things. For one thing, as you all know, baby Maayan joined our family 3 months ago. But that's not the main reason. The main cause of our recent hectic schedule was that all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, Anat found herself preparing a job talk for Haifa university, which she's going to give in May during our visit to Israel.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the specifics of the academic world, I'll say that getting your first job as a faculty member is probably the most challenging stage in an academic career. This is true worldwide, but is terribly emphasized in the current reality in Israel. The Israeli academia is burdened with extreme budgetary difficulties across the board, and every position that opens attracts dozens of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified.
Thus, although Anat's original plan was to start looking for a job in the coming fall, when a job search was announced in Haifa, there was no question that she can't let the opportunity pass. And whereas preparing a job talk is a stressful task no matter what, doing so in the middle of a maternity leave and with a newborn at home is virtually insane. But as said above, there wasn't really a choice here.
Fortunately, Maayan turned out to be a magnificent baby, and taking care of her is much easier than we originally anticipated. As opposed to our situations in the past with Noga and Hadas, I had to get back to work full-time a few days after the birth. And as opposed to the previous two daughters, we had no family around to help. And yet, in some strange and inexplicable way, we both feel very strongly that this time was much easier for us.
I know you'll suspect that I'm biased, but I don't care. I'll still say that Maayan is the cutest baby in the world. She does have her fussy days from time to time, like every baby, but typically she's very alert, extremely responsive, good-natured and full of smiles. She's already sleeping at night pretty regularly (typically 8:30 pm until 6:30 am), allowing her parents the much-needed rest and sleep. I usually say that I'd rather start with a 1-year old baby, but with Maayan most days are very enjoyable now as well. Humming, grrrring and hooooooing to her usually gets you conversation-like sounds in return. Smiling at her almost always grants you a wide smile. Her beautiful eyes, wide-open, are constantly looking around and studying her surroundings. Not to mention her cheek smooshed against my chest when she's sleeping on me in her BabyBjorn,or her tiny fingers unknowingly drumming on my shoulder when she's being fed.
In general, it'd be fair to say that right now I'm enjoying one of the best and happiest times I've ever had. Anat has completed her 12-week maternity leave, and I have been off work for more than a week already and am officially on paternity leave. For 6 weeks (4 of them in Israel) I'm going to be completely detached from my workplace, dedicating all my time and energy to my lovely daughters. And that's the most enjoyable and rewarding thing to be doing, in my opinion.
The weather is also cooperating wonderfully, and for the past two weeks we're having very non-Pittsburgh days, with blue skies, sunshine and perfect temperatures. Most of my time is spent walking around the neighborhood with Maayan in her stroller, absorbing the sun while drinking coffee, visiting Hadas at daycare and Noga at school and spending a lot of time with the three of them. If there wasn't that annoying need for my salary, I would have joyfully adopted this lifestyle for good ;-)
Hadas and Noga definitely had the expected post-family-expansion difficulties, each in her own way and time. However, we're long past these episodes by now, and they're both back to normal - extremely happy and lively girls, ever developing and evolving, fascinating company and most importantly true friends for each other. Hadas grew up so much and has become so mature, that it's sometimes hard for me to believe. She's still full of mischief and she has the inherent tendency not to obey, but I think this is a big part of her charm. Noga is simply blossoming at school, where she had a fantastic year. She is now a book worm just like her mother, reading full length books any time she can. Sometimes she's so absorbed in a book that it's really difficult to draw her attention...
Generally speaking, the recent developments with Anat's career, namely the (currently remote) possibility that she'll be offered a job in Israel, forced me to think where I want to live the rest of my life. The relevant and practical options are, naturally, the US and Israel. That's a topic for a much longer and detailed discussion, for which I don't have the time right now, but the bottom line is that I can't yet decisively answer this question, even to myself. I feel that the answer, at least for me, is not as obvious as it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. But, again, this is a subject for a separate posting, and I need to start the morning routine and get the girls organized for their last school day before going to Israel.
Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!!
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora (this list became longer, ha?! ;-)
All in all, the past few months were fairly hectic on our end, owing to several different things. For one thing, as you all know, baby Maayan joined our family 3 months ago. But that's not the main reason. The main cause of our recent hectic schedule was that all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, Anat found herself preparing a job talk for Haifa university, which she's going to give in May during our visit to Israel.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the specifics of the academic world, I'll say that getting your first job as a faculty member is probably the most challenging stage in an academic career. This is true worldwide, but is terribly emphasized in the current reality in Israel. The Israeli academia is burdened with extreme budgetary difficulties across the board, and every position that opens attracts dozens of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified.
Thus, although Anat's original plan was to start looking for a job in the coming fall, when a job search was announced in Haifa, there was no question that she can't let the opportunity pass. And whereas preparing a job talk is a stressful task no matter what, doing so in the middle of a maternity leave and with a newborn at home is virtually insane. But as said above, there wasn't really a choice here.
Fortunately, Maayan turned out to be a magnificent baby, and taking care of her is much easier than we originally anticipated. As opposed to our situations in the past with Noga and Hadas, I had to get back to work full-time a few days after the birth. And as opposed to the previous two daughters, we had no family around to help. And yet, in some strange and inexplicable way, we both feel very strongly that this time was much easier for us.
I know you'll suspect that I'm biased, but I don't care. I'll still say that Maayan is the cutest baby in the world. She does have her fussy days from time to time, like every baby, but typically she's very alert, extremely responsive, good-natured and full of smiles. She's already sleeping at night pretty regularly (typically 8:30 pm until 6:30 am), allowing her parents the much-needed rest and sleep. I usually say that I'd rather start with a 1-year old baby, but with Maayan most days are very enjoyable now as well. Humming, grrrring and hooooooing to her usually gets you conversation-like sounds in return. Smiling at her almost always grants you a wide smile. Her beautiful eyes, wide-open, are constantly looking around and studying her surroundings. Not to mention her cheek smooshed against my chest when she's sleeping on me in her BabyBjorn,or her tiny fingers unknowingly drumming on my shoulder when she's being fed.
In general, it'd be fair to say that right now I'm enjoying one of the best and happiest times I've ever had. Anat has completed her 12-week maternity leave, and I have been off work for more than a week already and am officially on paternity leave. For 6 weeks (4 of them in Israel) I'm going to be completely detached from my workplace, dedicating all my time and energy to my lovely daughters. And that's the most enjoyable and rewarding thing to be doing, in my opinion.
The weather is also cooperating wonderfully, and for the past two weeks we're having very non-Pittsburgh days, with blue skies, sunshine and perfect temperatures. Most of my time is spent walking around the neighborhood with Maayan in her stroller, absorbing the sun while drinking coffee, visiting Hadas at daycare and Noga at school and spending a lot of time with the three of them. If there wasn't that annoying need for my salary, I would have joyfully adopted this lifestyle for good ;-)
Hadas and Noga definitely had the expected post-family-expansion difficulties, each in her own way and time. However, we're long past these episodes by now, and they're both back to normal - extremely happy and lively girls, ever developing and evolving, fascinating company and most importantly true friends for each other. Hadas grew up so much and has become so mature, that it's sometimes hard for me to believe. She's still full of mischief and she has the inherent tendency not to obey, but I think this is a big part of her charm. Noga is simply blossoming at school, where she had a fantastic year. She is now a book worm just like her mother, reading full length books any time she can. Sometimes she's so absorbed in a book that it's really difficult to draw her attention...
Generally speaking, the recent developments with Anat's career, namely the (currently remote) possibility that she'll be offered a job in Israel, forced me to think where I want to live the rest of my life. The relevant and practical options are, naturally, the US and Israel. That's a topic for a much longer and detailed discussion, for which I don't have the time right now, but the bottom line is that I can't yet decisively answer this question, even to myself. I feel that the answer, at least for me, is not as obvious as it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. But, again, this is a subject for a separate posting, and I need to start the morning routine and get the girls organized for their last school day before going to Israel.
Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!!
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora (this list became longer, ha?! ;-)
Saturday, February 3
Welcome, Maayan!
We want to share some happy news with you! On Wednesday, 31 January 2007, our third daughter, Maayan was born. The birth was exceptionally quick and smooth, and 8 hours after she was born at the midwife center we were all situated back home, healthy and feeling well. Maayan weighed 3.8 kg (8 lb 7 oz) and is without a doubt the cutest thing!!! We promise to update our web site with additional photos as soon as our hectic (and so far sleepless) schedule allows.
Hugs and kisses,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
Hugs and kisses,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
Monday, January 1
Happy New Year! (from Pittsburgh)
My previous post was written around the Hebrew New Year, and after quite a while here I am, writing again, as the Gregorian New Year is approaching. Re-reading my previous post I realized that I didn't yet say that the baby we're expecting will be a third girl. Well, that isn't really surprising, is it? What else can we make?! ;-) As far as I'm concerned, anyway, girls are the best thing to have!
Anat is ambitious to get a lot done before giving birth (due early February), thus our lives have been pretty hectic recently. She is working frantically on multiple projects and papers, to the extent that it's sometimes hard to believe she's pregnant. All that in addition to attending a couple of conferences in Canada and Texas, not to mention the extensive traveling we went through in the past few months.
We spent a perfect long weekend in New-York city, enjoying the fantastic hospitality of our friend Itsik and his family and tasting a lot of the Big Apple. Shortly afterwards we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation with our friends Yael & Yaniv and their kids in Bloomington, Indiana. Each of these two destinations entails 7-8 hour drive in each direction, which went as smoothly as a long drive can. Our tolerance for long drives has definitely improved. I'll refrain from providing detailed accounts of these two vacations, due to complaints about the length of my postings ;-)
Generally speaking, in the past several months we've been doing many things that won't be as accessible with a newborn, such as going out (with or without the girls), going to concerts etc. There is no doubt - our lives are going to change drastically in going back to having a baby. Noga and Hadas are sooooo big by now, such that for extended periods of time they're totally self-sufficient. For example, it's not uncommon for them to wake up on a weekend morning, get breakfast and entertain themselves for a long while, allowing both of us to sleep very late. Such luxuries, obviously, will soon be gone… However, laying my hands on Anat's enormous basketball- shaped belly and feeling my third daughter kicking and dancing is an instant reminder of the joys expecting us. In addition, Noga and Hadas are utterly excited about their future sister. Well, I'm not sure Hadas fully understands the implications, but their attitude is definitely positive.
Talking about the girls, they are really amazingly huge. Hadas is intrigued by numbers and by opposites, which are recently her favorite bed time entertainment. Cuddling her and smelling her addicting after-bath freshness, we cover long-short, high-low, wide- narrow and the like. It's fascinating to observe the way she is learning things, and especially (that wasn't there when Noga was her age) the influence of her bilingualism. For example, answering the question "which number comes after 20" is instant in English, but much slower in Hebrew. On the other hand, her command of opposites is much better in Hebrew than in English. What a complex system… Noga is thriving at school and really loves it. As an anecdote, when as part of her homework she was requested to list the things she's thankful for, "school" was at the top of the list... It's really great seeing her enjoying her daily activities so much! Just like her Mom she is quickly becoming a book worm, and she's reading a LOT, including full-length books, such as "Little House on the Prairie".
I could fill pages telling about how cute they are, how they both lend themselves gleefully to kisses, hugs and cuddling. Or elaborate about our small daily traditions, such as each family member telling over dinner about their day's highlights. But I'll only say what's probably most important - both of them are very happy girls the vast majority of the time, a fact that naturally makes our lives bright!
It might be a good idea to tell more about the pregnancy and the planned labor. Both Noga and Hadas were born in a hospital ("Beylinson"), leaving us with very bad feelings about the way birth is handled and managed in a hospital. I'll spare you the details, and will only say that after Hadas' birth we decided that if at all possible, we'd prefer our next child *not* to be born in a hospital. That's why we were so happy to discover that Pittsburgh has an alternative institution, called the "midwife center". There is tons of fascinating information about midwifery, but in a nutshell, this means that the person helping the woman give birth is not a medical doctor, but a nurse midwife. The birth itself is bound to be natural (no Epidural). Nurse midwives undergo special graduate education and receive state certification (at least in Pennsylvania). In addition to the labor itself, all the prenatal care is performed by midwives rather than by doctors, in a setting which is anything but a hospital. I probably cannot say anything definite until after the birth, but at least so far it's hard to convey how different an experience this has been for us!
The differences are felt in every tiny detail - the atmosphere at the center, the welcoming design of the place and most importantly - their basic attitude of sharing information with the pregnant woman and her spouse, ultimately leaving all the choices and final decisions up to us. Don't get me wrong - the midwife center is a respectable professional institution, that has existed for more than 20 years and whose services are covered by every major health insurance provider. The key point, in my opinion, is that midwifery views pregnancy and labor as natural processes rather than a necessarily medical procedure. That is, as long as they progress normally. If a medical need is discovered during prenatal care or develops during labor, then the birth will take place in a nearby hospital. But only then.
Weather-wise, this winter is fairly strange and surprising. After a very chilly start back in October, the temperatures went drastically upwards. It's still very cold in Israeli terms, most of the time not much warmer than 0 degrees Celsius, but in Pittsburgh terms this isn't a winter. Let alone the almost total absence of snow - we had only one mild snow so far, making us more or less even with Jerusalem ;-) I guess that this global warming thing, which we all conveniently ignore in our daily routines, is here and is tangible. While we're at it, in http://tonykaron.com/2006/11/18/marx-and-fukuyama-were-wrong-its-the-environment-stupid/ you can find a very interesting article about the issue, with the first part giving scary information about potential scenarios.
Happy New Year!
Giora
Anat is ambitious to get a lot done before giving birth (due early February), thus our lives have been pretty hectic recently. She is working frantically on multiple projects and papers, to the extent that it's sometimes hard to believe she's pregnant. All that in addition to attending a couple of conferences in Canada and Texas, not to mention the extensive traveling we went through in the past few months.
We spent a perfect long weekend in New-York city, enjoying the fantastic hospitality of our friend Itsik and his family and tasting a lot of the Big Apple. Shortly afterwards we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation with our friends Yael & Yaniv and their kids in Bloomington, Indiana. Each of these two destinations entails 7-8 hour drive in each direction, which went as smoothly as a long drive can. Our tolerance for long drives has definitely improved. I'll refrain from providing detailed accounts of these two vacations, due to complaints about the length of my postings ;-)
Generally speaking, in the past several months we've been doing many things that won't be as accessible with a newborn, such as going out (with or without the girls), going to concerts etc. There is no doubt - our lives are going to change drastically in going back to having a baby. Noga and Hadas are sooooo big by now, such that for extended periods of time they're totally self-sufficient. For example, it's not uncommon for them to wake up on a weekend morning, get breakfast and entertain themselves for a long while, allowing both of us to sleep very late. Such luxuries, obviously, will soon be gone… However, laying my hands on Anat's enormous basketball- shaped belly and feeling my third daughter kicking and dancing is an instant reminder of the joys expecting us. In addition, Noga and Hadas are utterly excited about their future sister. Well, I'm not sure Hadas fully understands the implications, but their attitude is definitely positive.
Talking about the girls, they are really amazingly huge. Hadas is intrigued by numbers and by opposites, which are recently her favorite bed time entertainment. Cuddling her and smelling her addicting after-bath freshness, we cover long-short, high-low, wide- narrow and the like. It's fascinating to observe the way she is learning things, and especially (that wasn't there when Noga was her age) the influence of her bilingualism. For example, answering the question "which number comes after 20" is instant in English, but much slower in Hebrew. On the other hand, her command of opposites is much better in Hebrew than in English. What a complex system… Noga is thriving at school and really loves it. As an anecdote, when as part of her homework she was requested to list the things she's thankful for, "school" was at the top of the list... It's really great seeing her enjoying her daily activities so much! Just like her Mom she is quickly becoming a book worm, and she's reading a LOT, including full-length books, such as "Little House on the Prairie".
I could fill pages telling about how cute they are, how they both lend themselves gleefully to kisses, hugs and cuddling. Or elaborate about our small daily traditions, such as each family member telling over dinner about their day's highlights. But I'll only say what's probably most important - both of them are very happy girls the vast majority of the time, a fact that naturally makes our lives bright!
It might be a good idea to tell more about the pregnancy and the planned labor. Both Noga and Hadas were born in a hospital ("Beylinson"), leaving us with very bad feelings about the way birth is handled and managed in a hospital. I'll spare you the details, and will only say that after Hadas' birth we decided that if at all possible, we'd prefer our next child *not* to be born in a hospital. That's why we were so happy to discover that Pittsburgh has an alternative institution, called the "midwife center". There is tons of fascinating information about midwifery, but in a nutshell, this means that the person helping the woman give birth is not a medical doctor, but a nurse midwife. The birth itself is bound to be natural (no Epidural). Nurse midwives undergo special graduate education and receive state certification (at least in Pennsylvania). In addition to the labor itself, all the prenatal care is performed by midwives rather than by doctors, in a setting which is anything but a hospital. I probably cannot say anything definite until after the birth, but at least so far it's hard to convey how different an experience this has been for us!
The differences are felt in every tiny detail - the atmosphere at the center, the welcoming design of the place and most importantly - their basic attitude of sharing information with the pregnant woman and her spouse, ultimately leaving all the choices and final decisions up to us. Don't get me wrong - the midwife center is a respectable professional institution, that has existed for more than 20 years and whose services are covered by every major health insurance provider. The key point, in my opinion, is that midwifery views pregnancy and labor as natural processes rather than a necessarily medical procedure. That is, as long as they progress normally. If a medical need is discovered during prenatal care or develops during labor, then the birth will take place in a nearby hospital. But only then.
Weather-wise, this winter is fairly strange and surprising. After a very chilly start back in October, the temperatures went drastically upwards. It's still very cold in Israeli terms, most of the time not much warmer than 0 degrees Celsius, but in Pittsburgh terms this isn't a winter. Let alone the almost total absence of snow - we had only one mild snow so far, making us more or less even with Jerusalem ;-) I guess that this global warming thing, which we all conveniently ignore in our daily routines, is here and is tangible. While we're at it, in http://tonykaron.com/2006/11/18/marx-and-fukuyama-were-wrong-its-the-environment-stupid/ you can find a very interesting article about the issue, with the first part giving scary information about potential scenarios.
Happy New Year!
Giora
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