#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/6/25

Author

Ben Waber
March 06, 2025

A selfie of me in front of a partially frozen pond on a bright day. There's a beaver lodge near the left shore, and thick forest lining the banks with a short stone wall behind me. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing black sunglasses and a purple adidas running t-shirt.

It really felt like spring today (but somehow the ice still held on on this pond), so I enjoyed a run while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an excellent talk by Shane Greenstein on effects of co-invention investment in web 2.0/mobile apps for radio stations at the #VIDEseminar. I can't express how refreshing it is to hear a talk focused on a technology transition that we have good visibility on (i.e. not AI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSuWujl844

Next was a great talk by Simon Stepputtis on neuro-symbolic reasoning for robust robot intelligence at CU Boulder. An AI-related talk that actually scaffolds large model output rather than using it directly?! Will wonders never cease? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaCeW8Gth6s

Next was an important panel on the migration effects of economic sanctions (tldr; very high) at the Center for Economic and Policy Research with Jerg Gutmann, Francisco Rodriguez, Denisse Delgado, and Mark Weisbrot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eapNV4XegkU

Last was the first day of the National Bureau of Economic Research conference on the changing nature of work. The talk by Cristina Tello-Trillo on the latest US census survey on WFH was informative, and John Haltiwanger's talk on using cellphone data to study onsite work variation was extremely interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI0OfjUu2L0