Latest Posts
Somewhat socialised medicine
Since Wednesday, Chatterboy has been in Royal North Shore Hospital being treated for pneumonia. On Friday, when he’d turned the corner, the doctors admitted to us that they had been quite worried about him on Thursday, when nothing seemed to be working, and he was lying there, listlessly, on oxygen,Continue Reading
The Thunderbolt Kid
Today’s book review is The Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is one of my absolute favourite authors, mainly driven by two quite different books: Neither Here nor There (a story of backpacking around Europe) and Mother Tongue, which is his history of the English language. So I hadContinue Reading
Effort – more important than ability?
Phantom Scribbler and Laid Off Dad had thoughtful comments on this article from the New York Times on how you should praise your children – how it is much more effective to praise a child for putting effort in, than for being intrinsically smart. I recently found a fuller article on the sameContinue Reading
In praise of Grey ghosts and parking meters
I think I’m one of the few people in Sydney whose spirits rise at the site of a grey ghost (parking police). I live in an area which is mixed – about 50% of my street is businesses, mostly advertising agencies and design studios. The whole street is residents parkingContinue Reading
Blog against sexism day
Today is International Women’s Day, and as Tigtog has reminded me, it’s Blog against sexism day. Why aren’t there more women in senior management? In Australia, according to the EOWA (pdf), of Australia’s top 200 listed companies, 8.7% of directors are female, and 12% of senior exectuives (CEOs plus direct reports) areContinue Reading
Working Guilt
To become an actuary, at a minimum you need to spend two years post degree working full time and studying. Very occasionally, people do it in less, but it’s a very vocational piece of study, so you are much better off working at the same time. Most exams have passContinue Reading
Outcomes based education
John Howard had a column recently in the SMH about education. It was mostly a rant about the way education works these days – “Many of the fads and politically correct fashions that have found their way into our schools undermine the quality of education. Where Big Brother or a text messageContinue Reading
Email damage
A few years ago, I used to have a colleague who travelled a lot. He was notorious for emails written at 3 am from some airport lounge ripping into someone who had made a mistake (even if only in his eyes when considered at 3 am). He copied people in,Continue Reading
Breathtaking hypocrisy
As I was reading the Financial Review this morning, this quote caught my eye: “The Howard government has raised the art of hypocrisy to levels not previously seen by mankind, but …. to actually block the [Qantas] takeover would be breathtakingly bad policy, politics and plain dumb.” I haven’t reallyContinue Reading
Longevity risk – is it insurable?
Longevity risk is the risk that you live too long. Not a problem, most people would think. But there’s a financial risk – if you live longer than the money you have saved during your lifetime will last. Most actuaries fervently believe that this a risk that you should insureContinue Reading