In his essay “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant proposes that to achieve enlightenment, one needs the freedom to make public use of their reason. Any such summary statement would run the risk of misunderstanding Kant’s position if we overlook the significance of the public itself. Kant defines public as a universal space potentially shared by all human beings, and private as a local and situational space specific to practical concerns. The public is a place…
In her book “More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability in Tech,” Meredith Broussard explores how various tech fields, including AI, user-interface design, surveillance, and predictive coding, perpetuate social biases on the basis of race, gender, and ability. She covers topics such as face recognition software, predictive policing, predictive grading in education, and medical diagnosis, and identifies problems in these fields that are exacerbated by blind faith in technology. Broussard uses the term…
In “Where the Money Is: Value Investing in the Digital Age,” Adam Seessel draws on his early career as an award-winning journalist to bring his engaging style of writing to the world of capital markets. Intended for a wide audience beyond professional investors and analysts, Seessel focuses on value investing and how it differs from other investment styles, such as growth investing and short-term trading. He traces the history of value investing, highlighting key figures…
The following seven interviews were conducted during the October and November of 2022. The interviewees represent a diverse group of paths into, and fields within, User-Experience Research. Therefore, the interviews serve as a good, general introduction to the field for those interested in learning about it. More interviews are available on my YouTube channel.
Milan Kundera’s novel, Life is Elsewhere, contains both a celebration and a critique of poetry (aren’t the best critiques rooted in love?). The main characteristic of poetry, which is the target of his critique, is the force of poetic imagination toward finality. The poet, like a god, doesn’t simply consider a possibility; she creates and proclaims! “Look at what I have created!” What is created presents itself as always having been there, as a fate,…