It was a great day for the Boston Marathon, and after cheering on the runners I went out for a short run myself and listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fantastic talk by Laura Kray on updating beliefs on the impact of negotiating behaviors on the gender pay gap at INSEAD. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RSwlYT_wLM

Next was "The Last Human Job" by Allison Pugh. This book is an incredible exploration of the nature and meaning of work that centers on human connection - care work, but also education, and health care. Pugh provides a rich sociological examination of these classes of work and how important it is to deeply understand this work and its myriad effects before engaging in quantitative optimization. I do think there's a bit too much time spent on AI here, since while it's certainly relevant to the forces negatively impacting these fields the excessive focus is mostly a distraction. Still, the core of this book is absolutely phenomenal and critical for understanding the meaning and value of work. Highly recommend https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691240817/the-last-human-job

Last was "One Hand Clapping" by Nikolay Kukushkin. This book is best described as two introductory popular science books smashed together, with little collective tissue between the two parts. The first is a very good basic review of how life on Earth developed, tracing evolutionary history and processes from life's emergence to the present. The second is a decent but not particularly insightful entry level tour to cognition. There are better books on both topics, but if you haven't thought about these topics since high school this is a fine on ramp https://swiftpress.com/book/one-hand-clapping/