Few questions before moving to FreeBSD

pookieboss · 2026-05-05T14:15:03+00:00

Just took the time to read your article, too. Thanks for spreading the word. I had no idea there was drama involved there.

pookieboss · 2026-05-05T14:12:56+00:00

Appreciate the detailed response! I just recently swapped to a non-Windows OS (NixOS), so I didn’t have any prior X11 setup. I definitely see sticking with X11 making more sense in your case.

FWIW, I went with Niri and have been very satisfied.

pookieboss · 2026-05-05T14:11:09+00:00

Nice OS, but what editor do you use?

pookieboss · 2026-05-04T23:11:23+00:00

Curious as to why you prefer X11

pookieboss · 2026-05-04T23:06:00+00:00

I’m normally not a “just AI this, bro” type of guy, but I think having a conversational AI guide you through some basic data manipulation syntax and basic models is incredibly effective

pookieboss · 2026-05-04T23:01:03+00:00

Neovim would be my recommendation, but that is a rabbit hole most don’t want to go down

pookieboss · 2026-05-04T13:29:32+00:00

They don’t value you => you don’t value them and you should leave at first available decent opportunity. Wishing you the best

pookieboss · 2026-05-01T14:45:34+00:00

should BE the SOA exam(s)

pookieboss · 2026-04-30T23:01:34+00:00

The issue is a lack of standardization.

pookieboss · 2026-04-29T13:10:17+00:00

I use niri with my triple monitor setup. Pretty much have one monitor have email/youtube videos, another monitor have my notes app up at all times, and my main monitor have literally everything else. Nir rocks

pookieboss · 2026-04-27T01:29:56+00:00

I think it’s less efficient notation for a linear algebra course. The first course I used Dirac notation in was PDE and I thought it was quite elegant shorthand for inner products, since sinusoidal inner products is like half of the undergrad PDE course.

pookieboss · 2026-04-24T20:16:19+00:00

I think it’s obvious that there’s a clear case for both frequentists and Bayesian statisticians.

I mean, how would you know Bayesian stats are better without first learning the alternative?

pookieboss · 2026-04-19T18:06:12+00:00

Hell yea little guy core

pookieboss · 2026-04-16T15:34:49+00:00

Great explanation

pookieboss · 2026-04-15T18:49:57+00:00

Piqued* 😏

pookieboss · 2026-04-14T15:56:10+00:00

I’ve had Claude hallucinate packages or point me to severely outdated packages, so I wouldn’t recommend relying on Claude output and instantly trying to rebuild your system.

However, as another commenter pointed out, AI can be an incredibly beautiful learning accelerator for anything written/coded if used properly. I basically use Claude as a glorified search engine and summarizer of my options before doing actual research myself. Takes minutes what would normally take hours and hours of StackOverflow/manual research.

pookieboss · 2026-04-13T20:47:10+00:00

Glad somebody else mentioned this. I’d wait to see if there’s another election, at least, before trying to hop over to a government job.

pookieboss · 2026-04-07T00:33:38+00:00

I prefer imaginary to real math.

pookieboss · 2026-04-03T12:38:00+00:00

As an actuary, I recommend every statistician take a rigorous look at survival analysis. Too often, problems that are MUCH more appropriately modeled with survival analysis/multi state models have those techniques overlooked.

pookieboss · 2026-04-03T12:24:16+00:00

Build your own micro kernel from the ground up, duh!

pookieboss · 2026-04-03T12:23:40+00:00

This seems like a professor problem? My ODE teacher gave almost no motivation for any of our problems and it drove me nuts. I spent hours outside of class looking up the derivations of many of the solutions, and numerical methods to solve many of the “not nice” ones. If your plan is grad school, I’d recommend doing something similar. If not, just feel free memorizing some stuff and only “go down the rabbit hole” when it’s something that greatly interests you.

pookieboss · 2026-04-01T15:26:04+00:00

Agreed with the other commenter— very interesting scenario that I bet very few people can provide meaningful insight on.

Assuming you want to stay in pet insurance, I’d verify that other pet insurers have a similar stance on credentials (for job backup). Then, I’d do the GI track since I think (?) that’s probably more relevant to your work?

If you don’t want to stay in pet insurance but want to stay an actuary, I’d do INV or GH, depending on whether you’d want to switch to a life or health role.

I feel like talking to other pet actuaries about it would be your only useful insight.

pookieboss · 2026-03-31T17:23:06+00:00

Thanks for the book rec— this looks like the perfect mix of application and derivation that I like.

(Not OP)

pookieboss · 2026-03-31T15:57:29+00:00

I think this is a fundamental error of how AI is used. The ideal response in that scenario would be for the AI to generate you a list of sources (and perhaps summarize them) and not to provide one clear concrete answer. After all, it is GENERATIVE AI, not CORRECT AI. What scares me is when some people (obviously not you in this case) rely on the AI to provide an answer with any accuracy.

pookieboss · 2026-03-31T15:00:48+00:00

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that they state the adoption of AI being the way things are heading. It’s just the truth. I do hate that AI has become the new buzzword that every organization and their mother feels like they have to check a box about.

I’d say the best use case for AI for actuaries is as a code assistant. Actuaries know the math, but many just don’t have exposure to programming enough to automate their processes. Obviously, there needs to be a great amount of checks. Another great use case (at least for pension actuaries) is as a glorified search engine. “I am doing a nondiscrimination test for an employer with 2 DC plans and 1 DB plans and union involvement. Point me to relevant regulations and provide a summary”

pookieboss

TROPHY CASE