Five Chapters of My Transformation

Chapter One: Two Cents of Inspiration

I transitioned from the high-tech world to psychology, and this month I received official confirmation from the department of the "completion of my Master's degree"—a Master’s in Psychology. Yes, that’s what it’s called when you’ve fulfilled all your requirements and are officially notified that you’ve earned your degree. It’s been more than two years since I started my studies.

Throughout my career, I’ve seen people make changes. Inbar became a pastry chef. While we celebrated her decision, we were bummed we’d no longer enjoy her cakes in the office kitchen. Dan became a tour guide, leaving behind the cubicle walls and gifting us his ergonomic chair. Asaf transitioned to education and is now a beloved high school physics teacher.

Me? I couldn’t have imagined the transformation I embarked on. The stories of pastry-making, hiking the Israel Trail, or Newton’s laws didn’t prepare me for my personal experience. The shift from management and development roles in the hyper-technological world of high-tech to the realm of psychology has been an exciting, challenging, mind-expanding, and non-trivial journey.

Chapter Two: A Train to Where?

In high-tech, I dealt with innovation: human-supporting systems, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cognitive and memory process modeling. We helped users perform tasks with the most advanced technology at our disposal. My transition to psychology—an attempt to understand individual behavior in society—was entirely unexpected.

I didn’t wait for a perfectly logical moment or a solved equation to take this leap. Beyond self-awareness, I was driven by the belief that a multidisciplinary approach could build a bridge between worlds, introduce unique perspectives, and uncover angles I hadn’t encountered before.

On the first day of classes, I boarded the train to the next station in my journey, starting from the urban hub of Binyamina, through the clatter of keyboards and coffee aromas in Herzliya, bustling Tel Aviv Savidor Central, and finally, the desert calm of Be'er Sheva—arriving at "Be'er Sheva University" station.

Chapter Three: My Blue Cave

Moving from the exact sciences to the humanities and social sciences felt like transitioning from a metropolis to a vast blue ocean. There were days I felt like a fish out of water, gasping for air in a discipline I didn’t know. The challenge of being a high-tech researcher in the field of psychology is probably akin to a psychologist trying to be a startup founder. It’s possible, but there’s a lot to learn and experience to gain along the way. The significant differences between these two worlds made this journey so captivating, meaningful, and challenging—definitely not "more of the same."

My ocean is "decision-making," roughly in the area of Willful Ignorance Bay. It’s where people prefer to remain unaware and make decisions without knowing too much. In my thesis, I dove into the blue cave titled "Avoidance of Asking Sensitive Questions in the Context of Interpersonal Trust." We all experience and navigate such tendencies and biases in one way or another.

Chapter Four: People - The Bridge

I discovered that the broadest bridge between disciplines is "people" (and less so the research topics that could connect them, such as identifying personality structures in LLM models or expressing social phenomena in AI outputs). People were the ones I worked with, managed, and built products with. They include the faculty members in my department, my advisor, and my fellow students.

People are also my area of focus—I transitioned from creating human-supporting products to trying to understand humans themselves. The new people in my life over the past few years have given me fresh meaning—I mentor, coach, and support employees, managers, and executives who are very dear to my heart. Without this change, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet them, drive change in others, and break glass ceilings together. If you’ve been given the chance to be "a people person" in your work—you’ve received a gift in my eyes.

Chapter Five: So, What Now?

I’m now in my doctoral studies, commuting between Tel Aviv Savidor Central and Be'er Sheva University, diving deep into the field of Ignorance, and researching what’s next. At the same time, I run my practice in Tel Aviv, working with high-tech professionals as I had hoped to do. I enjoy the great privilege of being a partner in their life journeys. I also enjoy sharing my research and life experience in various forums (feel free to reach out to me privately).

Five Takeaways From My Journey (Cliché but Still Valid):

• Courage is simply the ability to overcome fear—nothing more.

• Ask questions—don’t be afraid to ask.

• Trust that you’ll learn to swim in unfamiliar waters.

• Change isn’t an enemy; it’s a teacher.

• Multidisciplinarity is another degree of freedom.