#AcademicRunPlaylist - 12/7/24

It was chilly today, but I was still able to enjoy the pre-winter environs while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was the second day of the National Bureau of Economic Research Organizational Economics symposium. I particularly liked the talk by Anna Stansbury on the class gap in career progression in academia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYVnjxhmdsQ

Next was an interesting talk by Bill Smart on privacy sensitive robotics at the GRASP Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LWAwdd2K0w

Next was the second day of the NBER Innovation Information Initiative meeting. The talk by Satyaki Chakravarty on compiling an Indian patent database was especially good, and a nice reprieve from people using LLMs incorrectly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pgf9BAbeYs

Next was a compelling panel on Iñupiaq life and culture in Alaska with Hannah Paniyavluk Loon, Norma Anallaq Ballot, and Wanni Anderson at Brown University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIj8GY2mbz8

Last was "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. While this book is now over 20 years old, it is still fiercely relevant as an ethnographic chronicle of the challenge of surviving as a low wage worker. Ehrenreich, a journalist, spends time in three different parts of the US taking up entry level jobs, illuminating how skilled these jobs actually are and how untenable the economic system is that makes it possible to pay people so little. At the same time, one wonders why the author didn't simply interview people who were already in these positions or work with a trained ethnographer - see "Data Driven" by Karen Levy as an example of how to do that well. Still, this remains a useful look into the glaring issues that haunt our society. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250808318/nickelanddimed/