I’m Garen Checkley

Hi, welcome to my most-minimal website! You can reach me at GarenCheckley@gmail.com.

My Work: Emerging Markets, Tech, and Culture

I work in Google's Next Billion Users initiative. You can see some examples at:

• A Framework for Technology Design for Emerging Markets (ACM)

• Designing Great Apps for New Internet Users (Google I/O '17)

Currently I'm working on

• making tech more gender equitable in emerging markets. Read more in:

• Gender Equity in Technologies: Considerations for Design in the Global South (ACM)

• “Privacy is not for me, it’s for those rich women”: Performative Privacy Practices on Mobile Phones by Women in South Asia (SOUPS)

• understanding the capabilities, contexts, and people who are just now coming online.

• moving to / living in Bangalore, India.

My Hobbies: Dance, Reading and struggling to learn Hindi

I dance a lot, mostly Hip Hop. I most enjoy dancing choreography from Allan Frias in San Francisco, you can see me embarrassing myself on my instagram. And I'm *trying* to learn Hindi -- so feel free to talk at me in Hindi.

Recommended Reading, with some notes

I read lots of random stuff, sometimes take notes. Here are some good ones.

• The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow (garenNotes)

• Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (garenNotes)

• Factfullness by Anna Rosling Ronnlund, Hans Rosling, and Ola Rosling  (garenNotes)

• The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt (garenNotes)

• Systems Thinking for Social Change by David Stroh (garenNotes)

• Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt (garenNotes)

• Geography of Thought by Richard Nisbett (garenNotes)

• Don’t Think Like an Elephant by George Lakoff (garenNotes)

• Orientalism by Edward Said (garenNotes)

• A Never Before World by Rama Bijapurkar

• The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley

• On Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners and Theft by Simon Wardley

• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

• Measure What Matters by John Doerr

• Design Driven Innovation by Roberto Verganti

Articles

• Curb Cuts (and the Curb Cut Effect) by 99 Percent Invisible

• On Average by 99 Percent Invisible

• Productivity by Sam Altman

• Incremental and Radical Innovation by Don Norman and Roberto Verganti

Secondary Research

(Trying to do more of this.)

• What’s up with the homeless situation in San Francisco in 10 slides