Russ
Hamer

On my own time, and readable

An essay every week: one hour, one sitting, no editing, no looking anything up, no AI. Each tick on the line is one essay.

Weekly

Something you can get

Chapter: “Esports Games and Genres.” Routledge Handbook of Esports, 2023.

Published

Something you can get

My dissertation, as a book. McFarland, 2021.

In print (publisher’s price)

Something you can get

Chapter: “Journey as Philosophy: Meaning, Purpose, and the Sublime.” The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy, 2020.

Published

Something you can get

“Designing Student Reflections to Enable Transformative Learning Experiences.” Teaching Philosophy 42(2), 2019.

Published

Something you can get

Chapter: “USS Callister and Non-Player Characters: How Should We Act in Video Games.” Wiley, 2019.

Published

Something you can get

Chapter: “Why Science is a Liar Sometimes.” Open Court, 2015.

Published

Something you can get

Chapter: “It’s Only Sane to Hide the Body in Your Mattress.” Open Court, 2013.

Published

Job

Back at Miami University as an adjunct.

Ongoing

Volunteer, now and then

I’m happy to work with schools on how AI and learning fit together, and with students on entrepreneurial skills and what the entrepreneur path actually looks like. It happens about once a semester. If you run a school or a class and that sounds useful, email me.

About once a semester

Job

Associate director of Miami University’s Master’s in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Technology; designed and taught a graduate course on emerging technology.

Finished

Job

Instructional assistant professor of philosophy.

Finished

Job

Adjunct instructor at City Colleges of Chicago: intro to philosophy, humanities, ethics, popular culture.

Finished

Job

Adjunct instructor: philosophy of human nature, logic, ethics.

Finished

School

Philosophy. My dissertation became the Kierkegaard book; my research was on reflection and how people come to understand things.

Finished

Side project

With two friends, I’m building custom strategy exercises for companies: a working model of a real problem your company is facing, run live with your own people in their real roles. We’re early, and looking for the first organization willing to try one.

Looking for a first organization

Side project

A tool that helps a church see the gifts its members already have, through a short conversation that each member controls.

In progress

Job

Principal product manager for Develop, the AI learning product Lyceum built. My day job.

Day job

Job

The EdTech startup I co-founded and ran. We built AI that checks whether people actually understood their training, got it into Fortune 500 companies, and Perceptyx acquired us in March 2026. It lives on as Develop, which is now my day job.

Acquired

Side project

A digital wargame about kids’ imaginative play. Each level, you make up a new rule to help you beat it, and that rule stays in the game for good. The catch is that the computer gets to use your rules against you in later levels, so you have to be careful what you invent. It’s half wargame, half roguelike, half turn-based tactics, half Calvinball. It’ll be free, in the browser.

Not online yet. Playtesters wanted once it is.

Something you can get

A two-player strategy card game for adult couples. I wanted to design an adult game where choice and autonomy were central, instead of leaving it all to randomness. It plays in about fifteen minutes.

18+ · sold at cost

Consulting

Consultant on a $1M DARPA AI grant about games: how people deceive in negotiation, and how an AI might tolerate and use deception in normal human ways.

Finished

Volunteer

Head of innovation; chair of the ethics committee.

Ongoing

Volunteer

Co-executive director of VOICE of Intercollegiate Esports, a nonprofit working to improve collegiate esports. Took it from insolvent to stable.

Finished

Job

Director of esports. Designed three courses and a new minor in Esports and Game Studies.

Finished

Volunteer

Faculty advisor, Redbird Esports at Illinois State.

Finished

Something you can get

Designs in my shop, Too Curious Not To.

At cost, rounded up to the nearest dollar

Hobby

My father was a geologist, and I grew up admiring his rock collection. I’m not sure where most of his rocks came from, though I know he collected some of them in college. Most of mine I’ve bought, with a few lucky finds. Lately I’ve been getting my daughter into rocks too, and we have a tumbler where I mostly fail at making rocks pretty enough for her to turn into jewelry.

I can’t identify most of them. Help welcome.

Hobby

Always Dune (the GF9 edition). Lately also Wingspan Pocket, Old King’s Crown, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Everdell, and Rebirth.

Always playing something