Yechiel Shaffer

Jewish educator. Improv enthusiast. Making classrooms less boring, one ‘Yes, And’ at a time. Founder @pdthatworks

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

It’s those msgs you receive from long lost friends on Erev Yom Kippur that get you ready for this awesome day.
Wishing everyone a meaningful, easy fast.
גמר חתימה טובה

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Sukkot hottip:
Buy a laminator and print photos from your phone and of IDF soldiers you know. Laminate those photos and immerse yourself in memories, gratitude and heroes of Israel this Sukkot. Extra points if you have pictures from a fam trip to Israel

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Today’s Daf has strong @MoWillems vibes #birdonmyhead

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

@Variety “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Choosing between what is urgent and important isn’t a real choice. Urgent must win every time. And important remains so…
After struggling to have enthusiastic early adopters to sign up, we’ve worked hard to make the process as one-step easy as possible @PDThatWorks

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Strong Ehud vibes here.
Watch your front Eglon…

[Raylan Givens @JewishWarrior13]

🚨WATCH: Sanaa, Yemen: A Houthi security check at the entrance to the Al-Sabain Square area to ensure that no weapons are brought in...LOL

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Privacy is the Fdn that enables our teachers to be vulnerable with themselves, while leaning on our AI coach to build new habits.
The teachers I know wants to be more effective and impactful, and it requires thoughtful habit to do so.
Habit building begins w safe vulnerability

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

The moment a teacher believes someone is reading, the growth number starts climbing. Not dishonesty. Professionalism. You don't fix that with a better rubric. @PDThatWorks fixes this by removing the audience.
Schools only ever see trends across 5+ teachers.

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

What @PDThatWorks doesn’t measure: classroom observations student outcomes anything that replaces a good coach

We operate w a smaller claim than those categories make. Also one we can back. One we believe builds a foundation for teacher growth and school change.

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

August is when schools believe in PD.
Then October happens, and the PD is a memory.
The gap isn't motivation. It's that nothing followed the workshop into the room.

We've been thinking about this all summer. This led us to build something.
Launch of @PDThatWorks is days away...

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

We’re days away from launching @PDThatWorks - and nervous/excited/energized for this new space. Watch here for updates including special features, how it will help you be the best teacher you can be, and will help your admin know it too.
#schoolsinsession #PDthatworks

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Just to add one more thought here: grafitti always challenges the passer by to try and figure out what it says. It’s never obvious, and never clear. It’s a fun challenge. This strategy double downs on that viewer reaction.

[Shai Wininger @shai_wininger]

Some background on our latest (and quite controversial) @Lemonade_Inc ad campaign.

It started with a hypothesis I've wanted to test for years: our brains have learned to tune out anything shaped like an ad. Researchers call this "banner blindness." Our subconscious identifies ads by their shape and style, and hides them from our conscious mind before they even register.

To bypass this blindness challenge, I wanted to try a different way to communicate with potential customers, one that doesn't look like advertising: "non-ads ads".

The graffiti campaign concept was inspired by the voice of our loyal customers, who sometimes sound more like members of a movement: people fed up with "old insurance" who can't go back once they've tried Lemonade.

Obviously, no one cares enough about insurance to go out and spray paint their thoughts. That's exactly the absurd part that makes this funny. We're not pretending it's real. The joke is that it obviously isn't.

But what often looks simple rarely is. Creating the ads required the team to get back to design basics. We wanted it to feel like real graffiti - so no screens, or apps, or AI. Sloppy on purpose, real spray paint driven by visceral, raw work. Tag placement on billboards had to be realistic, only where a graffiti artist could actually reach - so we had to adjust the art to each billboard specifically. Areas that are too high or too far for someone to reach would stay blank.

Also, for non-ads ads to work, the brand name can't be prominent. It needs to be implied, discovered slowly, never obvious at first sight.

Too early to say if it works. But people are posting pictures of insurance ads and arguing about them online. Voluntarily. >>

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

This post makes me want to rewatch Fiddler OTR and rethink Reb Tevye entirely. His concerns, his conversations and what his hopes are for his daughters…

[shira @shiraeis]

bringing this back because a strange signal keeps showing up in my personal life.

people around frontier labs have started bringing up Jewish texts in the context of AGI/ASI.

at parties, multiple frontier lab employees, most of them non-Jewish, have brought up Torah / Talmud / halakhic literature as a possible lens for civilization-scale alignment.

most recently, someone at Anthropic told me several of his colleagues were most interested in studying Torah after AGI.

separately, I’ve heard several versions of the argument that Jewish textual tradition might be relevant to alignment because it is one of the longest-running systems we have for value transmission, adversarial interpretation, precedent, constraint, and survival under regime change,

which makes intuitive sense. halakha is, among other things, a centuries-long technology for turning values into precedent, preserving arguments instead of erasing them, and thoroughly stress-testing norms against bizarre edge cases.

on a date a few months back, a different Anthropic researcher told me there’s lore that Ilya Sutskever aspired to be a rabbi growing up, which makes perfect sense when you think about it.

now, I know people might just be clocking me as Jewish and giving me the matching conversational response, but the pattern is interesting enough that I’m tracking it.

I went to private Jewish high school in new york,

and truly never thought I’d see the day when frontier lab researchers started rediscovering halakhic reasoning as alignment tech.

welcome to 2026, I guess!

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALISTS ❤️

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Shabaaaaaaaat shalom folks!

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

@tzvei_dinim @OhabZedek Fantastic no? I’ve never enjoyed a Hadran as much as when he does it.

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

If you find yourself on the Upper West Side, stop by @OhabZedek. There you will witness the Pesach miracle of R’ Allan Schwartz making 4 Siyumim at 4 minyanim. But the real miracle is him reciting the Hadran off by heart.
Marbim Shalom Baaretz!

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Burn baby burn! 🕺🏼

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

Let’s go @israel!
Huge respect for the Nicaragua fans who are absolutely bringing the energy
@WBCBaseball @Marlins @loanDepotpark

[Yechiel Shaffer @yechields]

At a @BRSynagogue tonight @SimchaLeiner & Rivie Schwebel sung this @AbieRotenberg18 song.
Years later the harmony and words remain so piercing.
https://t.co/VwPwWP8XXn

Gd. Tonight look down on all the families in mourning in Bet Shemesh and bring them comfort.