Half of my career, I have worked for bosses who were actuaries, and half not. Half of my career, I worked for bosses that were intellectually curious, and half not. There was a strong, but not perfect correlation between the two — most actuaries are intellectually curious, but there are a few that aren’t. Those that know me well, know that I am a pragmatic idealist. I have strong beliefs, but I also have a strong desire to solve the problem. Where I run into difficulty is where the problem is ill-constructed, and does not admit a good answer. Any answer would be subject to numerous qualifications and explanations. Perhaps I can give some examples: “What’s my illiquid structured finance bond worth?” Oh my. Whether residential mortgage, commercial mortgage, or asset-backed, that depends a lot upon future loss activity across the whole financial
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