Inventor Profile: Noam Hadas
Noam Hadas doesn’t recall his first invention. Nor his most recent one. He didn’t lose count exactly; before he started patenting his ideas, he’d already invented many tools and products, primarily in the sleep and medical technology spaces, for over two decades. He just didn’t know to call it inventing at the time. Innovation came naturally to him, and his business circumstances demanded constant problem solving.
But ultimately, the details blur together for Hadas, who earned his Master’s in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University, because his mind works in remarkable ways.
Noam’s muse, Luna
“I must warn you,” he said at the outset of our conversation. “I am slightly autistic, so you must be very clear in your questions… One aspect of my personality is that I really don’t remember when my first invention was, or how many I have. I can cite Pie to 10 decimals, but I won’t remember this conversation in two weeks.”
Our conversation revealed that Hadas is fundamentally calibrated for innovation. He doesn’t hold on to old ideas, successes, or failures—freeing up his creativity to generate novel ideas that are reflexively evaluated with a no-nonsense objectivity. Those natural traits of curiosity and imagination–tempered with the ability to dispassionately kill bad ideas and develop good ones–can take some inventors a lifetime to refine.
“The way with all my inventions is: They just happen,” he said. “When people ask me how I invent, I usually say, ‘I take showers and walk the dog.’ That’s how things happen. I put an idea on the back shelf of my brain and then it jumps out when I am ready and it says, ‘Hey, look at me! I’m an idea!’”
When one’s perspective on problems is constantly refreshed, solutions never grow stale. For instance, not remembering all the recurring complicated equations he uses forces Hadas to build up to them from basic physical laws, a process that sometimes triggers fresh insights. Consequently, many of Hadas’s solutions are truly innovative. He offered several examples where rather than tweak a known process or technology as the customer suggested, Hadas surpassed the desired result by removing the process altogether, or he created something completely new.
When technology is your favorite thing, an innovator needn’t ever put away his toys.
“I am always the odd bird in the company,” said Hadas, a successful entrepreneur and prolific inventor. “I just don’t remember any of the old solutions, so I make up new ones. Sometimes people have thrown me out of the room because my ideas were so new. But that hasn’t happened in a while. Nowadays, people say I’m pretty good.”
Xinova: Innovation ambrosia
Hadas’s innovative drive is fueled by a lifelong love of science across various disciplines.
“My main hobby is technology,” he said. “That’s what I do. That’s all I do. I enjoy reading science and technology for fun. I blow things up for fun. I used to tinker a lot when I was younger, but today I write stuff and draw stuff much more than I build stuff.”
Indeed, his notebook is filled with hundreds of invention ideas he wants to turn into real-life applications, not necessarily to commercialize or make money off of them. That’s part of the reason he is so active with Xinova.
“It’s more the itching inside my skull where they scratch, trying to be born. I don’t care much what happens once the first POC model proves the idea actually works.”
The thrill of invention provides an intoxicating rush. As such, Xinova offers a theme park and a testing ground for developing skills and ideas.
“Xinova allows me to innovate, and the mix of frustration when I can’t find a solution and the exhilaration when I come up with something truly innovative is the taste of life for me.”
Ah, inventor’s ambrosia.