Saleh Alda صالح فايز

Insights

Intelligence means very little if it does not make life more human, more capable and more awake.

I do not separate intelligence from people, or work from life. The way we design systems changes the people inside them. The way we work changes what we notice, what we value and eventually who we become.

Geopolitics and power

Who Is Winning the War

The daily headlines count missiles and strikes. The real question is simpler and harder: what did each side set out to achieve — and who got there?

· 5 min read

Geopolitics and power

The Trap That Was Always There

Why the American confrontation with Iran is not a failure of strength — it is a failure of understanding. And why history has seen this before.

· 7 min read

Geopolitics and power

The Theater of Fools

On conspiracy thinking, the refusal to accept chaos, and why the world is more often run by mediocrities than masterminds.

· 9 min read

People and intelligence

The Corruption of the Interior: Intelligence as Utility

Sam Altman is not just selling technology. He is trying to sell a new moral order, one in which the human mind slips quietly out of the human being and into the hands of corporations.

· 6 min read

  1. Geopolitics and power

    Militarizing Water: Power, Scarcity, and the New Geopolitics of Thirst

    When a drop sharpens into a blade, and thirst becomes policy.

    · 5 min read

  2. Geopolitics and power

    The World Order Is Melting: Calm Chaos and the Illusion of Power

    Not with a bang, but a drip. Calm chaos defines our era, as American dominance fades and rivals are not yet ready to fill the void.

    · 6 min read

  3. Geopolitics and power

    Poker, Chess & Go: A Guide to Geopolitical Strategy Games

    The great powers are not just failing to communicate; they are playing different games with different victory conditions.

    · 9 min read

  4. Markets and illusions

    The Market of Illusions: Welcome to the Wall Street Dream Factory

    You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to feel it. There’s a strange dissonance in the air, a widening chasm between the world of tangible goods and services and the world reflected on our stock tickers.

    · 5 min read

  5. Markets and illusions

    The House Always Wins: How the World’s Financial Casino Keeps You Poor

    The global economy isn’t a fair marketplace. It’s a casino. A massive, planet-sized casino with velvet ropes, glittering lights, and tables as far as the eye can see. After the second World War, one player emerged as the undisputed owner of this establishment: the United States. They built the walls, hired the dealers, and, most importantly, they printed the chips.

    · 8 min read

  6. Markets and illusions

    The End of the Loop

    This is not a story about tariffs or trade deficits. It’s about a financial loop that powers the U.S. empire, and it’s starting to break. Discover how the Petrodollar System works, the lessons from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and why modern tools like tariffs and sanctions are failing to stop the world from moving towards de-dollarization. This article explores the chess match of financial warfare that is shaping a new global order.

    · 3 min read

  7. Geopolitics and power

    The Myth of Global Order: Who Rules a World with No Map?

    That the “old order” is fading, and a new one is rising. That this is just a transition — a passing of the torch.

    · 3 min read

  8. Geopolitics and power

    The Grand Illusion: Iran’s Dilemma and the Power of Deception

    Iran stands on the edge of a grand illusion, where Israel’s strikes are not chaotic but a calculated campaign of deception. This is no ordinary standoff; it’s a game of strategy, of subtle power plays and veiled threats. To survive, Iran must act decisively or risk becoming a pawn in another’s game.

    · 7 min read

  9. Geopolitics and power

    The Illusion of Power: Israel’s Descent into Endless Conflicts

    Explore the ongoing Middle East conflict and its impact on Israel, the U.S., and global powers. A deep dive into strategies of influence, power dynamics, and the illusion of temporary victories in a turbulent region

    · 9 min read

  10. Ordinary life

    Let’s Shake Things Up: Chatting about the Real Issues in Ph.D. Training and Mentorship

    A Strategic Field Guide to Navigating Your Doctorate

    · 6 min read

Threads of thinking

People and intelligence

I care less about whether a machine looks intelligent than whether people become more intelligent around it.

For me, intelligence is not a score, a model or a performance. It is the ability to notice, connect, question, adapt and act with judgment. Technology can extend that ability—or quietly replace it with dependency.

The tools I want to create do not make people smaller. They remove repetitive friction, expose useful context, remember what matters, challenge weak assumptions and give people more room for judgment, imagination and better decisions.

Systems that give people back cognitive space—and a clearer next step.

  • Human-centred intelligence. Systems that remember context, connect scattered knowledge and make AI useful without pushing human judgment out of the room.
  • Strategy & clear paths. Structures that help a person or a company see what matters, what can wait, what is blocking progress and what the next credible move is.
  • Work systems. Research, proposal, writing, decision and operating tools that reduce administrative noise and connect strategy with everyday execution.
  • Better questions. Sometimes the most useful thing I can create is not an answer but a structure that helps someone ask a stronger question.

Logic and its assumptions

I love following logic. I also love destroying it.

I like a clean argument, evidence and structure. But I do not trust a logical chain merely because every step looks tidy. Sometimes the assumption underneath it is wrong. Sometimes the system is optimizing the wrong thing. Sometimes the most useful move is to break the frame and ask a question that was not allowed by the original logic.

Be rigorous about the work. Stay ordinary about yourself.

When I was younger, I wanted to change the world. Growing older made the ambition more personal and more demanding: change myself first. I still want enough ambition to build difficult things, enough humility to change my mind, enough curiosity to break my own logic, and enough ordinary life to remember why any of it matters.

Notes

  1. Intelligence should increase human agency

    A smart tool should leave a person more capable after using it, not simply more dependent on the tool.

  2. Follow logic, then question the frame

    Reason carefully. Then inspect the assumptions that made the reasoning possible. The frame can be the mistake.

  3. Reality gets the final vote

    Models, plans and elegant strategies are useful. Reality is still allowed to disagree with all of them.

  4. Build with people, not around them

    Good systems respect attention, dignity, context and the messy intelligence people already possess.

  5. Complexity is not permission for confusion

    Difficult things can be explained clearly without pretending they are simple.

  6. Stay ordinary

    Ambition is useful. Status theatre is exhausting. I would rather make good things and still enjoy a normal day.