#AcademicRunPlaylist - 11/1/24

Author

Ben Waber
November 01, 2024

A selfie of me in front of a large pond on a sunny day, with puffy white clouds dotting the sky. On the far bank the trees are a mix of vibrant fall colors, and some brown leaves line the ground near the shore. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing black sunglasses and a purple running shirt with a grey adidas logo on my right shoulder

It was an unseasonably warm November 1st, so I figured I might as well enjoy it and was able to go on a nice run while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting panel on combating inequality in Latin America at the LSE with Valentina Contreras, Julian Messina, and Sebastian Nieto Parra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cU5r4yaNZw

Next was a fantastic talk by Cindy Xiong Bearfield on designs to support better visual data communication at the UMD HCI Lab. Xiong Bearfield systematically demonstrates how even subtle visualization choices can dramatically change the statistical perceptions of people through experiments. And she's even doing a study looking at gender differences in perceptions focusing exclusively on non-binary people (unfortunately still a rarity in CS/social sciences)! Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnleK5pNyuA

Next was a short talk by Herbert Hovenkamp on evaluating the various forms of potential competition in antitrust at the GW Competition & Innovation Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFY64OEbT-k

Next was an engaging conversation with friends of the playlist Michael Levin and Ann Lipton on various theories around corporate purpose (shareholder vs. stakeholder primacy and the common ownership hypothesis in particular) and the interesting case of ExxonMobil suing their shareholders to stop their efforts to define corporate purpose using climate change proposals on the Shareholder Primacy podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRQLjpzjijE

Last was "What Can a Body Do?" by Sara Hendren. So far this is probably the best book I've read this year by a decent margin. Humans are inextricably connected with our tools - from the explicit (can openers) to the unnoticed (t-shirts) to the systemic (building architecture and urban design). This book investigates who these tools are designed for, who designs them, how they're designed and evaluated, and what happens when we expand the aperture of those current answers. Hendren viscerally demonstrates the power and importance of focusing on the mismatches that particular individuals face and meeting them with design. Rather than aiming for products that scale uniformly across large masses of people, this approach advocates for developing and scaling design processes.

This book is an engaging mix of personal anecdotes and rigorous academic research and theory. The historical background on some of the issues examined in this book, while necessarily brief, still provides tantalizing perspectives that interested readers can follow up on. This is a vital, one of a kind book. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561049/what-can-a-body-do-by-sara-hendren/