#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/14/26

It was a warm day (for Boston), and luckily I was able to go out for a nice run and listen to books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "Against Meritocracy" by Jo Littler. Littler has penned an absolute banger, ripping the meritocracy myth to shreds by philosophically and historically dissecting its foundations. She doesn't spend as much time examining the ridiculousness of defining merit as a single, universal metric as I would've liked, but after a brief examination of that glaring issue she rips into the sociological and economic biases that stack the deck in favor of those with resources and privilege in defining and benefiting from whatever definition of "merit" suits them. This is a must read book, highly recommend https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103260

Last was "Invested: How Three Centuries of Stock Market Advice Reshaped Our Money, Markets, and Minds" by Paul Crosthwaite, Peter Knight, Nicky Marsh, Helen Paul, and James Taylor. This is a fascinating history of finance, specifically focusing on financial advice for the general audience. The authors trace its genesis in the 1700s to the "financial gurus" of today, demonstrating the arc of the genre and the timelessness of the field. Promises that technological innovation will lead to "perfect markets" can be seen over this entire period, with similar prognostications made about everything from the telegraph and the internet. The dubious credentials of those who dole out the advice is also essentially timeless, with most promoters making far more money from selling books and seminars than actually investing. This phenomena still has a sizable influence on how people conceive of markets today, and thus this up to date history is important background to truly understand what flawed assumptions and practices have been baked in over the centuries. Highly recommend https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo181016184.html