A Night at the Museum

Plus: Giving a Final Exam in the Age of AI

Yuri Kruman
August 03, 2023

Whether it’s the first time, or if it’s just been a while, let’s connect and get to know each other (better) as humans.

If we haven’t connected yet, connect with me on LinkedIN. I post some super useful stuff there, as well :)
Put 30 minutes on my calendar to chat. No strings attached, whatsoever.

Let’s get to know each other (in many cases after not chatting for a long time) as humans, friends.

Of course, if there’s something I can help you with, just ask and I’ll do whatever I can to ask.

Here’s my calendar link, again.

Don’t be a stranger, friend.

—

In this issue: A Night at the Museum

—

Jerusalem by Night, on the Love Holiday

I’m giving my first final exam as a professor right now, as I type this.

Weird, to put it mildly.

The computers in a room with limited internet to prevent AI exam answers.

What a crazy thing to think about.

When I was last a student 14 years ago, we had none of this crap.

Just arrive, write stuff on a piece of paper, leave and hope for the best.

Mind you, the exam is purposely open-book.

All the quizzes and homework assignments were purposely open-book.

Learning isn’t some antiquated, useless exercise in recall.

I specifically made the class super-interactive and collaborative, as much as I humanly could.

Who would want to hear me drone on and on about digital marketing or much anything else?

Learning should be open and collaborative.

Everyone should participate, as much as possible.

Otherwise, what’s the point of the learning?

Regurgitation or applying it to build things right away?

Anyways, let’s see how it goes.

AI may not be allowed for writing the exam, but I might just allow it for grading the exam 🤣. Ya know, #kiddingnotkidding

So why am I mentioning this, while mentioning a museum at night?

Well, to put it another way, I had to take a day off today to come down to Jerusalem to give this exam.

So my wife and I made it an occasion.

As it happens, the Jerusalem Wine Festival started last night.

So we took a hotel and walked to the festival in the evening, with the sun setting over Jerusalem.

This place has been wracked with protests recently, right across the street from our destination, the Israel Museum.

We walked through the lovely Rehavia neighborhood, with the President‘s House, beautiful houses and… calm.

Mind you, Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish world, and according to some, the world, as a whole.

The feeling is fundamentally different here.

It’s super intense because of the religious and spiritual significance for Jews, Muslims, Christians.

Everyone who visits feels it at some point.

But at the moment, walking through, my wife and I just felt blissfully light, wonderfully free, in love, without a care in the world.

HUGE thank you to Mom for staying with the kids!

It’s not surprising, then, that last night was the start of the Tu B’Av (15th of Av) holiday.

For those not yet familiar, this is the Jewish “love holiday” wherein Jewish maidens would wear white and go out in the fields and the single men would come out and they would meet, etc.

This is, of course, coming less than a week after the most tragic day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av (9th of Av).

The Israel Museum pulled out all the stops, as always.

You walk onto the grounds of the place housing the Dead Sea Scrolls and many of the greatest treasures of Israel.

At the top of the main staircase, after receiving your glass, you see many of the very best wineries in Israel giving samples.

This ain’t no Manischewitz or Kedem crap.

These are some of the best award-winning wines in the *world*.

Names like Domaine du Castel (served at the PM’s residence), Meron Winery, Jezreel Valley Winery and many others.

And of course, there are lots of interesting fruit and chocolate liqueurs of all sorts, including quite good limoncello from Pallini.

Now, I’m not one who ever liked tequila much.

But hey, the place is awash with Americans who guzzle the stuff, at least in college, with abandon.

But we stopped by the Grand Mayan tequila booth.

Because when you’re at a wine festival and you’re having a grand time, why not?

The guy at the booth was quite generous with his shots, no less with the $300+ bottle.

I could never stand the stuff, which is why I was shocked to discover the well-aged version we tried was unbelievably smooth, even almost scotch-like.

Funny enough how you can drink like a fish before you remember to eat something.

We ate up a storm, too. First, pizza. Then, fish and chips.

Then… churros. By the way, new discovery: chocolate, maple syrup and caramel together…

OMG. You’ll thank me later. Try it.

Not quite Mexico City-good (Churreria El Moro is king), but pretty damn good.

Great cocktails at the cocktail bar, too.

And then, we closed it out with some gourmet dark chocolate.

Yeah… we really had a LOT to drink.

But you know what?

We’re adults. Kids are at home.

We’re alone, just the two of us, at the center of the world, Jerusalem.

Enjoying our time tremendously after a long day of work, driving, etc.

It’s SO good to be carefree sometimes, without any other thought.

To wander, to dance, to have good food and wine.

Not to see anyone we know (pretty shocking, it was full of American Jews, there’s usually *someone* we know at almost any event like this).

G-d bless the kids and our family, it’s fantastic to get away and feel young sometimes.

Not every visit to the holiest city in the world need be involve something highly spiritual like visiting the Wailing Wall.

Even though it got annoying at some point, the cover band sang some Millennial favorites from Radiohead, U2, Pearl Jam, etc.

By the way, the holiest act is, in fact, to create new life in the world, which is exactly what Tu B’Av celebrates (along with marriage, etc.).

So we celebrate love. We breathed it, drank it in, ate it up, waltzed with it, laughed together, made some great memories, breathed some holy Jerusalem air in the process.

It was a truly glorious night at the museum, with both of us on exhibit for the other, not anyone else.

It’s damn hard sometimes to remember this feeling, what with kids, a mortgage, bills, jobs, obligations.

And when you do, it’s a truly fantastic feeling.

We still walked the 30+ minutes back to the hotel, downhill, then way uphill.

Jerusalem at night is spectacular. The air is cleaner than in Haifa, that’s for sure.

The feeling is keen and marvelous, with all the monuments, flora, streets full of people and life.

We picked up some books from a bench, as we used to do in Brooklyn.

And after drinking what felt like a gallon of water before bed, we… passed out.

Miraculously, I woke up without any sign of headache.

The Israeli breakfast on the rooftop was a wonderful way to close out our stay.

The 26 hours away felt like 5 days.

And that, my friends, is the main takeaway.

GET AWAY ASAP!!

Enjoy the weekend, amigos and amigas!

—

We’ve launched the Commander in Chief Community

WHAT’S INSIDE?

Basically, this has all my best stuff, coaching and consulting materials, latest tools, my book split into chapters, with a whole bunch of my best trainings, workshops, writing, podcast episodes you name it.

Oh yeah, the premium stuff?

When you subscribe (and help me pay the damn bills, only fair), you’re gonna get:

1) Group coaching - career, business, life, whatevs

2) Private monthly trainings and workshops. Think:

a. getting promoted,

b. getting paid more,

c. building a 6-figure side business,

d. building a brilliant personal brand.

3) Special discounts for 1-on-1 coaching

You’re gonna LOVE this. Yeah, it’s pretty MASSIVE value, amigo/a.

Time to get off the sidelines.

Like, this is basically all the best stuff I’ve ever produced, with weekly updates and a ton of new stuff.