Embedding cryptographic messaging into English: Launched the Gematria Page Calculator
It’s endlessly fun to write so that every word can be read literally, while also carrying alternate meanings for my friends, and friends-of-friends, etc., who share the same public ruleset/codex for interpreting them. It’s a subtle way to speak to different audiences simultaneously; one message, understood differently by different targets. It’s also curiously useful in marketing and company-building, and you can think of it as a gamified form of public-key cryptography, and I’m lucky to continue the tradition of my ancestors, practitioners of the ancient Jewish art of gematria. But this can be mentally taxing, so voilà: here’s my Gematria Page Calculator, available as a Chrome extension, a Firefox add-on, and open source on Github.
TheProfessionalizer: Experimenting on Youtube, Tiktok & Instagram
I’ve been having fun lately experimenting with trying to master Tiktok & Instagram. How so? I’m sharing my approach on how to work–so that your clients & bosses love working with you–in the bite-sized social media style. It’s actually been fun experimenting with these challenges. You can follow me as @TheProfessionalizer on three platforms: Youtube – @The-Professionalizer, TikTok – @theprofessionaliz and Instagram – @theprofessionalizer. Let me know what you think.
Published ‘Meditations on Forgiveness’
My most personal book yet, my attempt to deal with some of the curveballs that my childhood threw me. Extra bonus: As it goes on, I increasingly explain some of my crazier ideas about things. I purposefully hide those later in the book, not only because the later arguments build on the earlier arguments, but as Easter Eggs for those who make it through. Find it on Amazon.
Joined Hebraica’s Board of Directors
It is an honor for me to have been invited to become a member of the Board of Directors (“Comisión Directiva“) of the Sociedad Hebraica Argentina.
Transforming ‘Beloved by Clients’ from an open secret to a system anyone can use
It’s been an open secret for a long-time: I’m hired for my marketing but I actually come into complex, messy teams and professionalize them. This was the heart of my pandemic-era book, the book. My latest adventure: transforming my methodology and my secrets to how I professionalize individuals and teams into courses so that you—any individual or any team—can learn to do it yourself. Check out the course & more: Beloved by Clients.
Founded the Minián Hebraica Autogestionado, a Modern Orthodox Shul, in Pilar, Buenos Aires
With our beloved Chabad rabbi and rebbetzin, my little Minian has been making waves in Argentina. Read all about us and what we’re up to here, at the Minián Hebraica’s webpage.
Organized PPC Club 83
Became the organizer of various PPC digital marketing initiatives, collectively known as the Hellbent projects: the PPC Club 83 – the private PPS Slack community; PPC Certification; and Alcohol and Advertising, for a few examples. If you have a weird sense of humor and know digital marketing, you may enjoy my series of columns on How would the great philosophers do PPC/digital marketing, and lessons on PPC & digital marketing from song lyrics.
Launched “Client Horror Stories” Podcast
What more fun way to meet interesting people than to deep-dive into challenging client situations they’ve been in, and what they learned and should have done differently.What more fun way to meet interesting people than to deep-dive into challenging client situations they’ve been in, and what they learned and should have done differently. Some insane stories indeed–clients can be krazy to manage! Listen to some at Client Horror Stories, launched on April 4th.
‘Beloved by Clients’ published, exposing the open secret of client work
The book is here: my guide to making clients love working with you. I expose various open secret of client work: what makes clients happy isn’t just the results of your work. Rather, it’s how you work: how you communicate, how fast you respond, how you deal with mistakes you’ll make, how you deal with delays or mistakes others make, how you take ownership or pass the buck, how you turn work into processes, how organized and structured you are, how transparent you are, how you tell them what they don’t want to hear or shirk away from doing so, and so forth. PS: check out the book!
‘A Drunken Philosopher on Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’ Published
As my writing gets my esoteric and mystical—as I get more esoteric and mystical!—my latest book is out, where I go line by line through a silly children’s book, and find the depth in every little detail of it… and my analysis goes into some surprising directions. The subtitle says it all: “A Deep-Dive Into A Seemingly Light But Secretly Deep Masterpiece.” You can get a copy here.
Published the Scorpion & the Frog
I spent a weekend writing up 29 versions of the classic fairy tale. Same story and same facts each time; but in each, the backstory before it happened & the thoughts in each of their heads change—resulting in a very different story each time. Fun, light, tons of hidden Easter egg gifts for the readers—and each one reinforcing that whenever I see someone behaving in a way that makes no sense to me, I need to ask myself, “what does he know that I don’t?” Read it and then let me know what you think.
Began Instagramming
@smorganfriedman–with neither selfies nor food.
Began Tweeting/X-ing
@morganfriedman but heed the warning in my Twitter bio: I know a ton about a tiny number of topics; nothing about anything else. Each of my observations here is obvious, trivial, or wrong.
Began Noting Spanish Etymologies
Spanish Etymology: Spanish for Nerds. I am obsessed with understanding where words come from, in many languages–and connecting the dots. My passion since I was 8 years old. For fun, I turned my decades of notes into a blog, with tens of thousands of subscribers. Get the book, as well.
Ran Marketing Services & Chief of Staff @ Procentris
Procentris. Procentris’ of Online Marketing Services, managing the online marketing for its US SEO, SEM, and marketing technology clients and helping lead the growth and management of the company as Chief of Staff. In Mumbai (you’ll always be Bombay to me). Managing dozens of SEO’s, SEM’s and software developers in India (or probably anywhere) = Premature White Hairs.
Keynoted Interesting New York
I love this speech I gave, about my idiosyncratic way of walking around cities. (It starts out slow the first ~4 minutes… but stick it out for 13 minutes, it gets awesome as I get into the groove.)
Began WNIP: Wednesday Night Interesting People
WNIP. Every Wednesday since 2008, the best people I know in the country would come to my house for drinks. (Except for interludes when I’m abroad or in intense-focus mode.) Often includes very, very awesome people.
Penguin Published My First Two Books
Buy the book, Overheard in New York. I’ve written two books–both Top 10 best-sellers on Amazon, and both published by Penguin. And buy the sequel, Overheard in the Office.
Founded Overheard in New York
Overheard in New York. Founded a humor empire with my (successful!) mission to get 10 million people to laugh at my jokes. Time Magazine’s Coolest Blogger of the Year. Endless Media Attention: my 15 minutes of fame. (And our sister sites, incl. Overheard in the Office).
Was Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
Penn, the Low Ivy. Won the Alumni Society Award as one of the 10 best students of my year. Won the Lilian & Benjamin Levy Award for writing, too. And yes, I’m a pretentious grammar snob for saying “was graduated’ rather than “graduated.” I also use the Oxford Comma.
Won Gold Medal @ NY Math Fair
Childhood math nerd.
Performed Piano @ Carnegie Hall
Childhood piano freak.
Obsessed Over Learning How To Imitate Anyone’s Writing Style
In middle school, I read John & Abigail Adams’ collected letters and loved their epistolary style. So I found lots of pen-pals and wrote to them like this. I did this for years until I became quite good. Then I spent a decade doing the same but for other lots of other people’s styles.
Memorized (most of) the Dictionary
Starting when I was approximately 8 years old until late high school, I’d spend 2 hours every morning memorizing the dictionary (and its etymologies), before the school bus came. The trusty, unpretentious World Book Dictionary, of course.
Was Born, on 1/14
Don’t remember it well. But my dad looks great in this photo with me, taken generally around that time.
Great-Aunt Dies while Cooking Dinner… And Family Eats Dinner
Before I was born, the entire extended family mishpachah–everyone, very poor–all came to my great-aunt’s house for dinner every Sunday night, for decades. The weekly luxury. When she was in her 90s, she laid down her head while cooking the dinner, and died. The whole family arrived over the next hours, as scheduled. They ate the dinner. It’s what she would have wanted.
My Family Emigrates to NY… and All But One Return
Five poor brothers emigrated from Minsk, Belarus to NY. The great depression was so bad for them that four of them returned to Belarus. Those four were murdered (you know, that issue with Germany). The one who stayed in NY was my great-grandfather. Thanks for not moving back to Eastern Europe on the eve of Hitler and Stalin, G-Gramps!
Great-Grandfather Sends for Wife… And Gets Her Sister
My great-grandfather emigrated from “Minsk Gubernia” to NY. Saved money, sent enough back to send for his wife… and the ship arrived, and his wife’s sister stepped off. Wife died and she took her place. She ended up being my great-grandma! Love those traditions.
Possibly-Related Morgan Robertson Wrote The Titan
Similarities of the rôles as well as the first and family names between myself and Morgan Robertson have led to widespread speculation that we may be related. On the face of it, we’re unlikely related (he’s unlikely Ashkenaz!) but speculation is fun. “The Other Morgan” in 1912 wrote The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility about a ship named the Titan that was full of elites without enough lifeboats that hit an iceberg and sunk on an April night–14 years before the famous “Titanic” event.
Ashkenaz in White Russia, But Originally Phoenician
23andme tells me I’m 100% Ashkenazi via Minsk/Belarus, supporting evidence for the family lore that we were rabbis for generations. 23andme has not been able to confirm the other family lore, that before that we were possibly plainly purple-loving Phoenician peasants.
Y-chromosomal Adam: My Original Human Ancestor
My story begins with my first known ancestor, for the human part of my DNA, was Y Chromosomal Adam. He’s the first “anatomically modern human,” as the evolutionary-biologists call them: the one man whom science has taught us that I’m descended from. And all other modern humans, too.
My Reptilian Ancestors… Maybe
They say, in our family lore, that 1,165,000 years ago our family’s distant ancestors were reptiles and thus we still have some trace of reptilian DNA in us. 23andme confirmed I do have some non-human Neanderthal DNA in me, at least. Who knows if the reptilian story—a bubbe-meise, as my grandma called them—is true or not. If I had to bet, I’d guess the chance that this is accurate would be about 0.00298347%.
