#AcademicRunPlaylist - 10/16/25

It was a lovely fall day on campus, and while commuting I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Rao Fu on using language models to improve spatial task performance at the GRASP Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPvaDkU8Xw

Next was a compelling talk by Juliane Reinecke on stewardship for the future commons at the Saïd Business School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTigb8fAgs

Next was a great talk by Michael Aldous and John Turner on trends in British CEO qualifications, demographics, and performance at the LSE, with excellent discussion from Judy Z. Stephenson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfjXAA1EyiU

Next was an insightful talk by Anna Tzanaki on the EU's legal and economic challenges around addressing killer acquisitions at PLAMADISO – Platforms, Markets, and the Digital Society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UsU4Akdjs

Next was "Enshittification" by Cory Doctorow. This is an extremely enjoyable read, and as a popular account that loosely sketches the causes of enshittification it stands up. However, Doctorow often substitutes a scan of news articles with deep, historical or empirical research, with a variety of claims made without any proof beyond vibes to back them up. His biases are also on full display here but masquerading as fact - he clearly really likes tech workers, absolving them of all responsibility for many of the trends in the industry. He could be correct! But beyond his individual, subjective observations he brings no other proof to the party. Overall, this is a decent book on an important topic, but it is easily refutable in its current form and feels like a missed opportunity https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

Last was "ADHD 2.0" by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey. If you're looking for a self-help book on ADHD this one is at least scientifically informed, although there are some ethical red flags here (e.g. recommending by name a dietary supplement that sponsored an author's podcast, despite generic versions being available). If instead you want more information on the underlying neurotype, however, you'll find a bit of information in one chapter followed by many sections of mostly meaningless jargon ("strengthen your neural networks" made me wince). You're probably better off reading a few introductory scientific papers on the topic https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/550868/adhd-20-by-edward-m-hallowell-md-and-john-j-ratey-md/