Steven Levitt has decided to retire from Academia

(based on an Economist’s article) After 3 books (all in my library, but still not read), and a podcast series the “Freakonomics Radio” that I follow and (really) like, amongst other initiatives, Steven Levitt has decided to retire from Academia. He has played an important and relevant role in promoting the interest of economics in the general public with his highly captivating communication style, also helped and supported by his co-author Stephen Dubner. The bait to get the attention of a wider audience was the counter-intuitive findings he shared in his books, but in my opinion was the way he was able to explain them in a simple and easy to understand way that generated value and something one should takeaway. Since the beginning there were some claims that immediately should have made you flinch and challenge them, like the claim that the legalization of abortion 1973 in the US, led to a fall in crime rate in 90’ (an Occam’s Razor challenge to it would made you immediately be wary of such claim), but nonetheless you could also see the value of the approach to make economics more tangible in your daily life and with that bring it closer to a non-expert audience. The most worrisome, with Levitt and most of the academic work done is “Social Sciences” is that: “…A recent study by economists at the Federal Reserve found that less than half of the published papers they examined could be replicated, even when given help from the original authors….” In my opinion this due to the publish or perish mindset you currently have in academia, that results that the scientific method is put as a second priority, being the first to publish, if possible with something eye-catching, and only secondly if it is real and supported by empiric study and data! - Why “Freakonomics” failed to transform economics https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/21/why-freakonomics-failed-to-transform-economics from The Economist

- Pedro

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AI in Football or in business

How to use AI in Football or in business (mutatis mutandis)? Start with the low hanging fruit. i.e. problems or recurring situations with a simple and more static environment like corner kicks vs. the full dynamic of a football game (or a full business environment), but potentially with a high payoff (in business language - profit pools) and explore and generate value. As Mr. Wang, from the Deep-Mind that developed this specific model, mentions: “…sport offers a safe and controllable test-bed to develop helpful ai technologies that might one day be used in health care or defense. After all, football is not a matter of life and death. It is, as Bill Shankly, a former Liverpool manager, once observed, much more important than that…” AI models can improve corner-kick tactics https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/03/19/ai-models-can-improve-corner-kick-tactics from The Economist

- Pedro

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Seven of the best war novels by the Economist

Seven of the best war novels by the Economist (non-Tolstoyan): All Quiet on the Western Front → By Erich Maria Remarque Regeneration → By Pat Barker The Bridge on the River Kwai → By Pierre Boulle Stalingrad: A Novel → By Vasily Grossman. Slaughterhouse-Five. → By Kurt Vonnegut. The Sorrow of War → By Bao Ninh Half of a Yellow Sun → By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie All added to my wish-list and a couple to my library. Happy readings! https://www.economist.com/the-economist-reads/2024/03/21/seven-of-the-best-war-novels

- Pedro

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El problema de los tres cuerpos" y la trilogía “Recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra”.

Excelente artículo de “El País” sobre Liu Cixin, su libro “El problema de los tres cuerpos" y la trilogía “Recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra”. No conocía el autor y sus libros y después de leer este articulo y como resultado ya tengo los libros (link adjunto) en los idiomas que sé (Portugués, Castellano y Inglés) en mi lista de deseos y ya he empezado a ver la serie en Netflix (link también adjunto). ¡Buenas lecturas! https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0BPCKJJM3/?coliid=I30GELTSBUN3DP&colid=ZM8Z2XF0NCB1&psc=0&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it https://www.netflix.com/watch/81024821?tctx=1%2C0%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C%2CVideo%3A81024821%2C https://elpais.com/eps/2024-03-22/liu-cixin-autor-de-el-problema-de-los-tres-cuerpos-tener-ideas-originales-es-cada-vez-mas-dificil.html

- Pedro

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(based on an Economist’s article) After 3 books (all in my library, but still not read), and a podcast series the “Freakonomics Radio” that I follow and (really) like, amongst other initiatives, Steven Levitt has decided to retire from Academia. He has played an important and relevant role in promoting the interest of economics in the general public with his highly captivating communication style, also helped and supported by his co-author Stephen Dubner. The bait to get the attention of a wider audience was the counter-intuitive findings he shared in his books, but in my opinion was the way he was able to explain them in a simple and easy to understand way that generated value and something one should takeaway. Since the beginning there were some claims that immediately should have made you flinch and challenge them, like the claim that the legalization of abortion 1973 in the US, led to a fall in crime rate in 90’ (an Occam’s Razor challenge to it would made you immediately be wary of such claim), but nonetheless you could also see the value of the approach to make economics more tangible in your daily life and with that bring it closer to a non-expert audience. The most worrisome, with Levitt and most of the academic work done is “Social Sciences” is that: “…A recent study by economists at the Federal Reserve found that less than half of the published papers they examined could be replicated, even when given help from the original authors….” In my opinion this due to the publish or perish mindset you currently have in academia, that results that the scientific method is put as a second priority, being the first to publish, if possible with something eye-catching, and only secondly if it is real and supported by empiric study and data! - Why “Freakonomics” failed to transform economics https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/21/why-freakonomics-failed-to-transform-economics from The Economist

- Pedro

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Starting a new book! Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Business Man

Starting a new book! Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Business Man - > by Robert Updegrafft, John Brubaker (Foreword) “…Published in 1916, this story is over a hundred years old, yet its message is just as relevant today as it was in 1916. Perhaps even more so. Why? Because never in the history of our society have we had greater access to information yet at the same time we’ve never been more deficient in common sense. Advertising legend David Ogilvy believed this book changed his life and was so passionate about its message that he had his employees read it every year. I’ve read the book a dozen times, and each time I pick up a new insight or piece of wisdom from it. It’s less a book about advertising, or even about Adams himself, as much as it’s a book about the power of mindset. I encourage you to read and re-read this book a dozen times, too. I can realistically promise you that you’ll glean some new wisdom from Obvious Adams each time you re-read it. …” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43566531

- Pedro

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Book Rating - 4/5 The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes → by Zachary D. Carter

Book Rating - 4/5 The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes → by Zachary D. Carter Review to come shortly! “…A page-turning biography of world-changing economist John Maynard Keynes and the transformative ideas that outlived him At the dawn of World War I, a young academic named John Maynard Keynes hastily folded his long legs into the sidecar of his brother-in-law’s motorcycle for an odd, frantic journey that would change the course of history. Swept away from his placid home at Cambridge University by the currents of the conflict, Keynes found himself thrust into the halls of European treasuries to arrange emergency loans and packed off to America to negotiate the terms of economic combat. The terror and anxiety unleashed by the war would transform him from a comfortable obscurity into the most influential and controversial intellectual of his day—a man whose ideas still retain the power to shock in our own time. Keynes was not only an economist but the preeminent anti-authoritarian thinker of the twentieth century, one who devoted his life to the belief that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. As a moral philosopher, political theorist, and statesman, Keynes led an extraordinary life that took him from intimate turn-of-the-century parties in London’s riotous Bloomsbury art scene to the fevered negotiations in Paris that shaped the Treaty of Versailles, from stock market crashes on two continents to diplomatic breakthroughs in the mountains of New Hampshire to wartime ballet openings at London’s extravagant Covent Garden. Along the way, Keynes reinvented Enlightenment liberalism to meet the harrowing crises of the twentieth century. In the United States, his ideas became the foundation of a burgeoning economics profession, but they also became a flash point in the broader political struggle of the Cold War, as Keynesian acolytes faced off against conservatives in an intellectual battle for the future of the country—and the world. Though many Keynesian ideas survived the struggle, much of the project to which he devoted his life was lost. In this riveting biography, veteran journalist Zachary D. Carter unearths the lost legacy of one of history’s most fascinating minds. The Price of Peace revives a forgotten set of ideas about democracy, money, and the good life with transformative implications for today’s debates over inequality and the power politics that shape the global order. …” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51949674

- Pedro

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