#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/19/24

It was another crazy few days, but while running around I still had some time for talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fantastic discussion on the Moelis case and Delaware's recent changes to boards delegating duties to shareholders as well as advance notice bylaw changes on the Shareholder Primacy podcast with Ann Lipton and Michael Levin. The recent Delaware changes are an earthquake for corporate governance, and if you're in business or academic fields concerned with business you need to be aware of these changes, and this conversation is the perfect place to start. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpcaIFg0lJ0&t=1s

Next was an amazing talk by Boris Hanin on building a mathematical theory of machine learning at Harvard University. This talk gets at fundamental questions in machine learning and provides essential intuition on why/when we can expect models to behave in certain ways - high dimensional optimization efficacy, generalization, feature learning, and appropriately matching data, models, and learning algorithms. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKEaicP5jiU

Next was a great discussion with Dev Patel on the impact of floods on economic development on the VoxDev podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk4I2cSrUKA

Next was an intriguing talk by Adam Zsolt Wagneron using reinforcement learning for mathematics at Harvard CMSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKpqcoZk3So

Next was an excellent talk by John Basl about the poor state of the AI ethics ecosystem and how to improve it at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. Basl nicely contrasts AI with bioethics, highlighting the lack of shared concept definitions, ethical norms/education, prestige, and more. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scHnGCTN2I

Next was an engaging talk by Stephane Lequeux on the differences between labor regimes in Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CgFUo7iF0E

Next was a fascinating talk by Jerome Lewis and Chris Knight on the origins of language at UCL Anthropology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ZdoKFbRVs

Last was "Facing East from Indian Country" by Daniel Richter, who delivers an extremely well-researched, insightful look at an area that I've called home for my whole life. While other books do a better job at illuminating the indigenous perspective than this one, Richter is unequalled at bringing the direct source material into the text, explaining the background (such as in the format of Calvinist conversion speeches), and clearly stating where direct evidence doesn't exist. As such, it provides the most unfiltered look at this pivotal era that I've ever encountered.

This book hit me more emotionally than others on the topic because he spends a lot of time laying out the history of places where I spent my childhood - Philadelphia - and my adult life - greater Boston. Being confronted with the meaning of street names in Natick and the origins of a 1600s church that is on my normal run route was deeply meaningful to me. I think this would still be very interesting even if you don't have direct experience with those places, but on my run tomorrow I will be able to name specific people who walked there four centuries ago, the horrible injustices that created the spaces I now enjoy, and how I can repay and honor those communities that have now moved to other parts of the country. Highly recommend.

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674011175