Boomsday- an Actuarial-related satire

I read Boomsday by Christopher Buckley about two weeks ago. I liked the humor and wit in the movie Thank You for Smoking. And it turned out Buckley had written quite a few satires and Boomsday is the latest one. And what a bonus- the story is about social security, baby boomers, some highly advanced actuarial software which can predict when people die with 99.7% accuracy!! :)

The actuarial magazine Contingencies had a book review of this book. If you are too lazy to read, reading the book review can give you a gist of the story and also some of the actuarial-related contents. If you are looking for a book to read during Thanksgiving, I recommend Boomsday.

Good Book Sunday- You, Inc.

This is how I spent my Sunday afternoon- sitting in a bookstore, sipping a cold coffee and reading You, Inc. I love this book- the chapters are short, and I like the way the writers told the stories. At first I thought I would just read it in the bookstore and not to buy it. But after reading half of it, I changed my mind. I need to buy it so that I can read it over again and high-light some phrases for future reference. There are just so many good ideas in the book!

One idea that Beckwith wrote (recalled from my memory since I haven't bought the book yet) is to "act on the knowledge. Because you may hear the idea and read the idea many times before, but it doesn't mean you learn it yet. "

P.S. Thanks K and Lori for mentioning this book on their blogs back in April and earlier this year. (See, what a perfect example of a lapse of months to "act on the knowledge" :))

After reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

I finished reading the Confessions of an Economic Hit Man last night. (Now you know why I'm not making too much progress in my FAP Modules ;)) If you haven't heard about this book yet, the Confessions of an Economic Hit Man told a story of the writer, John Perkins, who worked for a consultant company which perform economic forecast to convince leaders in the developing countries to accept loans that the countries could not repay.

This book made me understand some of the FAP Module 1 material about the high professional and ethical standards as an actuary. All professions bear a responsibility to the society. In the book, when the writer was still an Economic Hit Man (EHM), he used economics models, forecast and his talent in writing to win multi-billion dollars contracts for his company. Very often, the writer knew what he did was not ethical and socially responsible to the developing countries. But still, he fell to the lure of money and power.

Like what Peter Parker in Spider Man said, "With great powers comes great responsibility". This sums up things I learned about business ethics.

By the way, are there any EHMs that only do good things for the greatest good, like a Robin Hood?

An A stduent reading The C Student's Guide to Success

Finally, my "The C Student's Guide to Success" has arrived from Amazon today. Two weeks ago, I saw this book from Borders, I flipped through it and read half a chapter (Chapter 5- master the art of purposeful learning) in the middle of the book. Then a few days later, I placed the order on Amazon.

While I was waiting for the book to arrive, I recommended this book to SmartLemming. Amazingly, Lori has already finished reading the book and wrote a book review on her blog! On the other hand, as of today, I just finished the first 30 pages at the gym.

My friend asked me how I could recommend a book to someone else before I finished reading it. There are two reasons- intuition and the title of the book. Remember I read half a chapter at Borders? Actually I did learn something about being observant from this book for such a short period of time.

After reading quite a few business/non-fiction books for the last 6 years, I am getting intuitive to know if the book is just a hype, or if there's something I can learn from it.

For the title of the book, at first I was thinking of recommending this book to a family member. But after reading for a few pages, I thought I could learn something from this book as well!

Though I was an A student for the last 4 years, I started to realize that I need more than my academic talent (a.k.a. getting an A with minimal efforts) to advance in my life. Since I am a person who can learn well from reading, I know this book may point me to a right direction. I know, I can't learn how to be street-smart just by reading a book.

Again, just like any other career, self-help, investment books, what works for the author may not necessarily works for me. And hence, I'll use the "take it as a grain of salt" approach and test it in my daily life.

I'm going to see Seth Godin on May 22nd.

I bought two tickets of Seth Godin's talk on May 22nd. I'm really excited! And I convinced S to come with me even though she didn't exactly know who Seth Godin is. (But I guaranteed her that it will be a good speech.)

Most people in the office have never heard of Seth Godin at all. But to me, Godin is one of my heroes outside the actuarial world. You may wonder who my heroes are in the actuarial world. Well, I'll write it on another post. (Hint: one of them is my actuarial professor at Drake. :))

So the ticket of the event costs $50 and it comes with 5 books. I'm going to keep one for myself, one for S. Then I have 3 left. Hm....I still need to figure out who I should share these 3 books with.

Here are two videos of Seth Godin's presentation:

Seth Godin at Gel
"All Marketers Are Liars" Video

They Once Were Nobodies Too

I was reading a soundview summary of Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Career Got Their Start last week. The main idea of the book is this- "Many successful people were once just ordinary twentysomethings. And everybody starts out as a nobody."

Just like what my mom used to tell me, "Everyone has to start from somewhere."

It's quite interesting to see the early lives of some really successful people. And here's my list of compilation of jobs/life situations of them.

Did you know....

Tom Clancy used to sell insurance before publishing his first novel in 1984.

Suze Orman was a waitress in Berkeley for several years in her twenties.

Milton Friedman was intended to become an actuary but didn't like taking the exams.

Albert Einstein was an assistant examiner in a patent office and was pass over for promotion.

Tony Robbins used to wash his dishes in his bathtub


Perhaps what they did early in life was a stepping stone to prepare for something bigger. (This is easy to say as we all have 20/20 hindsight.) Or perhaps they did what they had to do (to pay the bills) while pursuing their more gratifying "real profession/interests/hobbies" on the side.

And then, at one point, when they are ready, like Steven Stern wrote on a review of The Dip by Seth Godin, "they pick the right moment and the right place to quit, so that they can concentrate their fire on an area where winning is a much more likely (and indeed more profitable) outcome."

I was joking with my friend the other day that when we become the very best at something, people will say this:

"Oh, look at these two, they used to be actuarial analysts and doing benefit statements for years...."

My 'In-and-Out" of Knowledge---Reading and Blogging

Everyone knows the benefit of reading. I love reading- I still remembered, when I was a kid, going to the library or the bookstores was the highlight in the weekend.

Kimber had a post on the habits of reading 30 minutes a day and also applying the knowledge. I think one of my fast and easy ways to put my knowledge into use is through blogging.

(You know, when you are working in the office 8 hours a day, most people at work are not that interested to your learning experience at all. And hence, I need to find a way to release some of my random thoughts here! Who knows, what I wrote may also touch someone's lives? )

I know, I'm not writing any Shakespeare's type of masterpiece here. But still, it does take some thinking to internalize everything I learn so that I can have something to write. And hence, I believe that blogging can increase creativity (well, maybe in my own small way) .

If you are looking for ways to enhance your reading skill, check out this article.

My Collection---Friendships

Some people collect stamps, others collect baseball cards or comic books, and I collect friends.

Just like every stamp tells a story, there's a story behind every friendship. Some people have their own favorite comic books in their collections. They would take it out to look at it once in awhile. I stay in touch with my friends whenever I can. (e.g. next week, I'll be in Chicago to see some of my college buddies. JS, I'll keep my words and come to NYC to see you early next year!)

Through a common friend, My friend S and I are going to have lunch with a very accomplished actuary next month. It would be a good opportunity to ask some questions and to learn. (i.e. I love picking people's brains for ideas and experiences). Of course, I have to tell my boss about it since the lunch will be on a weekday and it takes about two hours (including time to commute). The first thing my boss said to me was, "You are very good at networking."

I don't know if this is networking or not. Somehow, I feel "networking" has a negative connotation of using a friend or job searching. One thing I know, is that, I love making friends and connecting with people. It's fascinating for me to hear their stories, where they came from, their failures and successes, and their dreams and aspirations.

In "The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell", there are three types of people who shapes the world---the Connector, the Mavens and the Salesmen. Hopefully, I will be a Connector someday.

A Quote that I've seen twice last week

"Care more than others think wise.
Risk more than others think safe.
Dream more than others think practical.
Expect more than others think possible."
--Author Unknown

My friend CL was explaining this quote with some real life examples to me last weekend. I thought it's a quote that every person with an entrepreneur spirit can remember. Last night, I was reading the first page of "Pour your heart into it by Howard Schultz" and I saw this quote again! After doing a brief research, it seems that the CEO of Starbucks is the first person who used this quote.

Things always happen for a reason, I think I should blog this ;) .

Maverick Actuaries

I was reading Maverick at Work by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre last night, just the first few chapters though. It mentioned that to be outstanding as an organization, you need to find out your true calling. Look at Southwest, they are in the "freedom business" to democratize the skies and people who work with southwest are the freedom fighters.

What values do actuaries stand for? Can actuaries be mavericks too? Other than dealing with numbers and reports everyday, what's the bigger picture? I remember one of my bosses told me that we are not just in the pension consulting business, we are not just merely pension actuaries who sign the funding valuation reports. We are in the retirement business.

In a way, we are in the freedom business too, an average person may work about 33 years (start working at 22 and retire at age 55). After all these years of hard work, all he/she wants, perhaps, is to have enough money to live through the retirement and do something he/she loves.

As a pension actuary, we can safeguard their retirement funds (i.e. make sure the company pension funds are well-funded and making contributions on time). Hence, when an individual retires, she has the freedom to do what she loves because she knows that her retirement fund is there for her.

What about other actuaries? For P&C actuaries (Property & Casualty), are they not in the lifestyle business? Since what type of cars and what house you live in is all about your living style, and hence, the need of auto and home insurance is part of the deal to your lifestyle right? (Just a thought)

P.S. I bought this book after reading the blogpost by Lori @ SmartLemming. Thanks Lori, I'm glad that I bought and read this book!