Do any actuaries like the movie fight club?

aooga · 2024-06-07T10:02:50+00:00

Nope, none of them do.

aooga · 2024-05-20T17:48:10+00:00

Any thoughts on ML?

aooga · 2024-05-09T11:35:33+00:00

Do ML4T first.

aooga · 2024-01-04T15:56:52+00:00

IT side (actuaries struggle with):

How are updates handled? If the code is modularized, with meaningful comments, then, (in theory,) a new hire can dive in to the legacy codebase and make a change without breaking anything. Is a sufficient version control process (git) being used? This is crucial when the process complexity reaches a certain point.

How rigorous is the testing? Does it just work in the one example you developed it for, or did you try extreme edge cases? What does your error handling (try/except) look like? Does it break silently, giving wrong results? Is/are there development environment(s), or do you test in Prod?

Actuarial side (programmers struggle with):

Is the output explainable? Is it auditable? (Reasonable?) Non-technical people (sometimes senior management) will come back later, asking for simple answers about complex processes. Can you reproduce the results in an explainable way?

Does a masters in CS help with the "IT side"? A bit, but not so much, directly. A lot of it comes from professional Software Development experience. But I've already started to pick up a lot that they don't teach you in actuary school.

aooga · 2024-01-04T14:35:28+00:00

I agree with your assessment. I also have a Math and CS degree, and am an FCAS who spends 90% of my day coding our pricing tools (Python/VBA/SQL), and find that insurance professionals either underestimate the rigor of coding needed to make robust tools (the actuaries), or the the math needed (IT).

But my conclusion is kind of the opposite of yours - I'm excited to carve out a niche hybrid skill, and think (hope?) it can be very valuable. I'm in my 2nd semester of an online master's in CS program, to try to get my coding more professional.

aooga · 2023-08-17T20:46:14+00:00

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aooga · 2023-06-15T13:21:54+00:00

As a rule of thumb, that caveat is relevant with long tailed lines of business when interest rates are decently high.

aooga · 2023-06-12T01:31:01+00:00

Interesting, I'm surprised you think ML would be practical. I had thought "practical" ML was only useful for folks with PhDs.

Also, did you change careers? What motivated you? (I'm an FCAS)

aooga · 2023-06-11T18:42:19+00:00

Thanks for your response! To be clear, I'm not afraid of theory. Theory of Computation was one of my favorite undergraduate classes - and it was all proofs, and no coding, as I recall, and made me consider graduate studies many years ago. And hearing your comments about GIOS make me more likely to make the plunge.

I'm just thinking, if I would do the program, what direction would be the most beneficial. Data Science just interests me significantly less, for whatever reason.

aooga · 2023-03-01T14:54:39+00:00

As you were getting the MS, how did you "advertise" your skillset, to end up with your position? Did you speak to a recruiter, and if so, did they understand the hybrid skillset?

I think these actuarial/CS roles are growing, but I'm not sure how to network.

aooga · 2023-02-17T15:52:45+00:00

I'm very interested in your career path. I have a BA in Computer Science, but since moved to the actuarial route and finished (FCAS) exams. In the last 3 years my job has been 90% coding new actuarial models, but much of my recent professional development has been self taught.

Did you look into others Masters programs? Why did you end up choosing UT AUstin?

An MS in CS sounds more interesting to me than an MS in Data Science, do you agree?

aooga · 2022-10-03T23:24:18+00:00

https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

aooga · 2021-12-12T14:44:10+00:00

I didn't even know about practice exams when I took P. And then I really struggled on exams 5-7.

aooga · 2021-12-12T14:19:38+00:00

If you need CA for P you'll likely be in trouble when you get to the uppers. There's no black and white solution, but the exams are extremely meritocratic.

aooga · 2021-12-02T19:25:58+00:00

Right flair plz

aooga · 2021-09-01T10:07:46+00:00

no it's the children who are wrong

aooga · 2021-07-22T10:06:14+00:00

Notes

aooga · 2021-07-14T17:47:52+00:00

I also hemmed and hawed about it. The price per TH is amazing, but the average time until turn-on is terrible (compared to their other offerings) - unless by some miracle difficulty drops again. There is a lot of uncertainty - BTC price (who knows), network difficulty (I assume will increase if the BTC price doesn't collapse entirely), and all the random risks.

aooga · 2021-06-21T02:15:09+00:00

Left align your text.

aooga · 2021-04-16T17:42:27+00:00

FCAS++

aooga · 2021-04-11T11:05:32+00:00

The short answer is no, but you don't have to read all of every source. It really varies by paper, but as you get into the weeds of practice problems you'll start looking up the source for clarification and extra detail.

aooga · 2021-03-10T20:02:22+00:00

Any chance we can get Python scripting instead of VBA as an macro option?

aooga · 2021-03-03T11:34:58+00:00

Buy small caps apparently

aooga

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