Ben Waber's Academic Run Playlist Rundown - Early June 2021

Another week, and more training for the Boston Marathon with Samaritans. I’ve appreciated all the donations so far (if you would like to donate, please go here), but look for a special event announcement in the next few weeks. I won’t say too much more, except that it’ll feature an all-star “work” group. Keep your eyes here!

On to the #AcademicRunPlaylist talks!

Time for a New Antitrust Era - Stanford Computational Antitrust 

Definitions of monopoly power have evolved over time in response to real damage to the economy and society. These rules are in desperate need of revision today, but in this fascinating discussion from Thibault Schrepel with Media Labbers Sandy Pentland, Robert Zev Mahari, Sandro Claudio Lera, they discuss the difficulty of applying old methodologies to the corporate powers of today. Data is now one of the primary levers of power, and using it to bludgeon new competition or swipe up budding firms that will eventually become competitors has negatively shifted the economy. A number of solutions are discussed here, and in the coming years this topic promises to only grow in importance.

See What I Mean: Making Waves with the Blind - Chieko Asakawa, CHI 2021

Some people know that my earliest foray into research was in computer vision developing interfaces for people with disabilities. One of my proudest moments of this time was helping to create an eye based vision system for people who couldn’t use a mouse to efficiently use a computer. I got to see how technology, when co-developed with the community, could radically improve lives.

It’s from this mindset that I listened with wonder to the amazing talk from Chieko Asekawa of CMU Robotics. Her recent projects were stunning in their melding of advanced technical capabilities with real world applications that deliver immediate benefits to the blind community. Hearing her personal story as well as a young researcher and academic was also inspiring. I couldn’t help but think about what a beautiful time it is to be alive: a century ago this work couldn’t have happened, and millions of people would continue to be unheard by those with power in society. And we’re all poorer when that happens - our solutions could reach more people, make a bigger impact, and occasionally those benefits will also spill over to those in power as well. As Prof. Asekawa demonstrates, if you leave someone out you’ll never get a chance to see the amazing things they can do.

Healthy Buildings - John D. Macomber and Joseph G. Allen, Virtual Books@Baker

Discussions on the importance of the physical office environment abound today, but I did a double take when I saw the date of this talk - nearly a year ago! During the pandemic we’ve been hammered with the benefits of air filtration, ventilation, and the like, but this discussion at HBS with John D. Macomber and Joseph G. Allen goes farther in arguing for building KPIs as business KPIs. It’s probably hard for people to argue with this point now, but they point to a number of pre-pandemic studies as well demonstrating the importance of the work environment. Given that we spend 90% of our lives indoors, this seems a prudent step for organizations to take.

The role experiments play in addressing discrimination - Mike Luca, HBS Digital Initiative

I’ll admit that I’ve only occasionally used Airbnb, but I understand the allure of the platform from both sides of the market. Owners and entrepreneurs can make money when they have free space, while renters can stay in interesting locations where hotels aren’t available or when they want a different travel experience. But in this talk Mike Luca Breaks down some of the pitfalls that come with building such a platform and the unintentional discriminatory power that can develop from seemingly benign design choices. He touches on the importance of representation in a design team, experiments on platforms, and how to think about platforms compared to traditional industries. An essential talk as these platforms only gain in importance in the coming years.

"Too Lazy to Read the Paper" Podcast - Sune Lehmann and Marta Gonzalez

All you need to know about this talk: two of the pioneers of modern network science have an engaging discussion on the latest in the field related to transportation and serve up personal insights and stories along the way. I first met them at one of the earliest NetSci conferences when it was still single track (loved those days!), and I’ve remained a fan ever since. This is not to be missed!

Africa’s New Cities - MIT X TAU, Kofi Bio

This is a talk best viewed with video, but this talk by architect Kofi Bio gets to the heart of placemaking as a tool for society. A thread throughout the discussion is on using place to rewrite history in Africa, but there’s a particular focus on Ghana and a number of projects there - highlighting pre-colonial culture while creating new places for the public as a whole to live, work, and play. As we think about the future of cities I have no doubt that Bio will be at the center of that discussion.

The Current Problems in the Competitive League Scene - Nick "LS" DeCesare and Tim "Nemesis" Lipov?ek

Over the past few years I’ve become fascinated with eSports - they have some of the trappings of traditional sports but their format and relative youth enables rapid experimentation. At the same time this industry is exploding, there is a huge gap of management experience at play in eSports teams. On the surface they seem much more immature than their traditional sports brethren, but a closer look reveals marked similarities with management in all but the most sophisticated organizations.

That’s why this discussion is so essential. While they appear to be mostly unfamiliar with the scientific management literature, they hone in on key failings of most organizations as well as the issues with “thought leaders” in any space. Remember, there is no vetting to become a thought leader - you just say you’re one. Beyond that, the ability to discern who’s right in a discussion of experts is challenging when people are novices.

I’ve become an avid League of Legends player over the years, and LS and Nemesis are some of the most thoughtful people in the space. Most people who play the game a lot or watch a lot of pro games think they’re experts. They’re not. Similarly, everyone who has a job or who has had a long career thinks they’re an expert on work - but they’re not. The challenge is to discriminate between experts and non-experts, which as they point out in the discussion is challenging. You’ll gravitate towards whoever sounds most convincing, but this is at best weakly correlated with true expertise.

I could go on about this fantastic discussion, and while I acknowledge that those who are unfamiliar with League of Legends will find ~20% of the discussion inscrutable, IMO this should be required viewing for all those in the management space.

Developing a 'Theory of Machine' to Examine Perceptions of Algorithms - CHM Seminar Series, Jennifer Logg

As Jennifer Logg points out in this expansive talk, there is a widespread perception that people prefer human recommendations to algorithms. Spoiler alert: they don’t, except in a few very specific cases.

Through an array of meticulous and intriguing experiments, Logg digs into one area where humans definitely prefer other humans: hiring. What explains this result, and what are the implications for automated hiring systems? This expanded version of her Psych of Tech talk is definitely worth your time.

Sustainable Development in Africa - MIT X TAU, Sara Menker

In this incredibly wide ranging talk, Sara Menker touches on too many areas to give proper treatment in a short summary: entrepreneurship, AI, finance, development challenges in Africa, etc. It’s rare you get someone who can credibly be called an expert in all these areas but if anyone fits the bill it’s Menker.

Learning more about her work is interesting in its own right, but I really appreciated the perspective on the larger systems at play in tech, finance, and governance. There are real challenges to overcome to make a big difference in these systems, but there are some ideas here that should help folks looking to get into the space get started.

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That’s all for this week! If you saw any academic talks or seminars I should watch/listen to on my runs, please let me know in the comments.

I'll plan to share the next slate of talks in about a week, and as a reminder if you're able please donate to Samaritans as I train for the Boston Marathon.