Future Uncertainty

We speak in chunks. A single word can connect to a world of shared meaning, or none at all. There is too much for us to understand, so we pick areas and hopefully have overlaps that allow the important bits to spread. Risk is a chunky word. When choosing a path to financial security, risk was the overlap I chose to study. Actuarial Science is a framework for making financial sense of future uncertainty. Primarily through statistical and business understanding of the past using large data sets. It takes advantage of the law of large numbers. There are different forms of uncertainty and risk. For most people, risk normally just means something going wrong. The study of risk goes wider than that. Looking at complexity, ambiguity, and the randomness of the world, and trying to find within that, “is there anything that we can rely on?”. When you look at individual instances of something, life can feel like a spin of the coin or roll of the dice. But if they are fair, there are 6 sides of a dice and 2 sides of a coin. Actuarial Science is partly the study of, and attempt to weather the storms of, “the underlying” rather than the specific result. A consideration for the variety of outcomes that is a form of “there, but for the grace of God, go I”. 

Roman Dice

Into the Jungle

I spent two years between school and university on a work-travel visa in the UK. I did not know what work I wanted to do, and my older brothers were both at university studying medicine. They talked me out of following their path. I waited tables till I had the money for a plane ticket, then got a job as an assistant teacher at a prep school. That gave me time to plot. I initially considered teaching and architecture, but the teachers I knew complained about how little they got paid, and the architects said they did not do creative work. What drove my final choice was an acceptance that STEM skills get paid more. My maths teacher had mentioned Actuaries, but most people (including some who choose to study Actuarial Science) do not even know what they are. The kicker was there were bursaries available. Not a sexy career choice, but on the menu. The hardest part is finding out what reliably needs doing, then putting in the effort of building those skills. Look at job adverts. Look at career paths on LinkedIn. Speak to people one step ahead of you on a path open to you. Then, good luck. It is a jungle out there and we do not all have the same tools and choices.

On the Menu

I am chatting to a few companies in my job hunt. Like dating, if you do that while employed, it feels dirty. The company I work for has one employee. Me. And currently no clients, other than people reading my free writing. My 2,800 blog posts over 6 years earned me $23.59 (and you need to reach $60 to get paid). So, it is okay. The context shift of coming back to South Africa after 12 years, means it provides an opportunity to get to understand what is going on here on the ground. My head and heart never left, because of Social Media and working for/with companies with South African links while away. My feet did, and it does feel different. Like buying cupboard items when shopping, rather than hand-to-mouth eating. The gaping hole in my “build capital” mantra is that I am not an entrepreneur. I did not make jobs. I took on-the-menu jobs, and reinvested the gap between my pay and my needs. I studied a degree knowing the salary and demand for the jobs that required that. Old Mutual paid for my studies. The most prominent emotion I have is gratitude. You cannot build capital without a job, and South Africa does not have enough jobs. But I am confident it will have one for me. Not all good ideas are good business ideas. Not all people willing to work can find work.

Savoy Hotel Menu

Cairo 1900

Building a Practice

“Restraining of thought waves means analysing your thoughts constantly, it does not mean suppression of thoughts.” Swami Durgananda (commentary on “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”). Financial Waves can’t simply be ignored. If you don’t learn to control money, it can control you. Through study and patient reflection, you can develop a system that works for you. Letting go of distortions, delusions, and obstacles. Finding a way to go deeper into problems and resolving them. Rather than letting unhelpful money anxiety become the driving force in our lives. Whether the problem is misunderstanding, accepting false perceptions of others, or deep soaked prejudice from the way the world is temporarily (but doesn’t need to be). Build a practice to concentrate on what matters.

Step by Step

A Someone Else

Money fights can dominate our close relationships. I hated the control money had over decision making growing up. When deciding on a career, the thing that tipped my choice was feeling trapped. Even without extravagant preferences, money seemed to set the rules. I chose to understand those rules. My formal studies over about 8 years focused on risk, planning, and investing. That wasn’t the world I wanted to find my mojo in, but it was the world we are in. Things start from where they are. It doesn’t matter if you don’t care about money. Unless you inherit enough of the stuff to “rise above it”, or someone else is paying the bills. If you don’t have a someone else, that someone else is you. Fortunately, there is a path to freedom. Money doesn’t care who does the money making. You can build a something else. You can build Capital to earn money, power your mojo, and let your relationships breathe.

Dymaxion Map

Using Energy

When I was at University I was probably at the peak of my powers of stubborn pig-headed focus. During study weeks, and exam periods, I could fit in 12-hours of studying in very regimented 50-min-on–10-min-break-repeat cycles. With scheduled time-tables for the hours allocated to each subject, for studying, for running (head-clearing), for match-fitness (past papers), and for pre-game head clearing (movies etc.) When I started working, and continued studying a full study day seldom managed to reach 8-hours. Instead I would take half study days because I could fit in 5 hours. Three before work & two after. These were always bursts of energy. Burst then bust. I don’t really buy the 60+ hours of work people claim to do regularly. I think you get 4-6 hours of quality time a day. If you use that all up for work, I think friends and family get the dregs. Work can be an anti-depressant. An excuse not to process emotional stuff. A priority that hides priorities.

Finding the Energy

Needs Must

I had a two-year gap between School and University. These “Gap Years” are more common in the UK and Australia than in South Africa. I went to the UK to work as a Gap Student at a prep-School. During this time, I was able to give more thought about what to study. My choice was deeply pragmatic. It wasn’t realistic to study the mating habits of the North Sea Clam, or anything else that was simply a liberal education. There was a clear STEM filter. I looked at surveys of pay, challenge, ability to advance, work-life balance, supply, and demand. Of these, Actuarial Science seemed to best match my skills. As a 14-year old, my Maths teacher had mentioned the profession, but that was about as much knowledge as I had. “What is an Actuary?” was an interesting starting point for many 18-year olds who made the same choice. I like the idea of a liberal education that isn’t focused on putting food on the table. But needs must. I was lucky to have the choice, and grateful to those who had given me my menu.

Learning to Remember

I had a giant of a man as a History teacher when I was 12. Besides his size, the thing I remember is that he taught me how to remember (I am visiting a friend who was in my class at the time and she also carried his technique all the way through her studies). We use lots of filler words when things are explained to us, or when we are explaining them. Being incredibly kind to ourselves, perhaps this is because we know we don't listen to most of what other people are saying. We just wait for our turn to speak. Maybe it is because most people who really understand ideas find understanding more ideas more appealing than explaining them. So communication becomes an afterthought.

Whatever the reason, you can normally summarise what is said. You can also connect ideas and use some of the tricks that make us remember things. Mr Simon taught us to create spider diagrams of ideas rather than chunks of text. To summarise the main ideas. You could then get to the keywords and create mnemonics to remember them. Coming up with rude rhymes to study was the most entertaining bit. I liked those hard covered A4 books and would fill the right hand page with my summaries, and then leave the left hand page blank. I could then come back and fill those pages with lists to memorise, or make additional notes when I understood things a little  better.

I was never a big fan of just reading because I would typically fall asleep, so writing the summaries gave my elephant something to do. Once I had done the summaries, I would summarise the summaries into 'super-summaries'. Then the super into super-super. This eventually allowed me to have a look at the whole subject on one page. I don't know how meaningful these summaries would have been to someone who hadn't actually made them. But they made my life easier.

I heard of Tony Buzan and Mind Maps at a later stage which was similar to Mr Simon's method but with lots of colour. The stuff I hadn't heard about at school or university takes it to a different level. If you have a kid of around 12 or more, do them and yourself a favour and buy them a copy of 'Moonwalking with Einstein' by Joshua Foer. Buy yourself a copy. 

Our minds are incredibly powerful at taking in information that matters to us. We have great visual and spatial memories. Think back to the house you grew up in. Can you close your eyes and walk around in it? We are also really good at remembering stuff that is rude, sexy or funny. The monks who came up with many of these memory techniques had an awkward time explaining their techniques to other monks. Half our problem remembering things we know is finding the memory. It is in there somewhere if it was meaningful, it just tends to get in a mess. It's on the tip of our tongue. We know we know it. We just can't find it.

We understand the world through stories and we remember things through links to other things. The stronger the links, the easier it is to recall. And when we are daydreaming and w(a/o)ndering around these links, we are able to make connections not even the world's most powerful computers can. Computers go through every possible solution there is. We only go through the ones that make sense to us. Our imperfections and biases make us blind and ignorant. This helps.

We have style. Style creates links. Links make memories. Memories give meaning.

We (have style. Style creates links. Links make memories. Memories) give meaning.

We give meaning.

Arrrrr you Match Fit?

When Marin Cilic was beating Roger Federer, the commentators mentioned that he had been working on learning not to think too much. In a Murray match I watched, he berated himself for not trusting his legs. While our Elephant seems slow and incompetent when it is learning a new skill, once it gets going, our Rider is more of a spectator or coach and largely has to keep quiet. As in tennis, you may get the occasional glance into the crowd, but if you start relying on the coach you have a problem.

This is why when training the Elephant, you need to create the situation and atmosphere in which the action will occur. When studying for an exam, it is not good enough to know the material. You need to be 'match fit' - your Elephant needs to know the material. Elephants don't sit back and ponder - they either know it or they don't. If they don't, they tend to panic and there can be a knock on effect.

An early mentor for my bigger exams taught me to break down questions by the marks and time allocated and practise until I could answer in that time. So for 180 minute exam worth 100 marks, I would spend 1.6 minutes per mark (shaving 0.2 off as a buffer). So 5 minutes for a 3 mark question. In preparing, you do as many past papers as possible 'in exam conditions'. For technical exams, you often find you struggle to answer the questions in the 3 hours in practise conditions. For discussion questions, you have to work up to being able to manage to carry on for the full 3 hours.

Whether tennis, piano playing, or in an exam - your Rider claiming to know something is not enough. When the heat is on, that is when you have to have internalised something. Your Rider may be able to rely on 'Googling it' - but your Elephant is the one who needs to get the job done.

P.S. Happy 'International talk like a Pirate Day' - Arrrrrr

Death By Powerpoint

Take a look at this presentation on presenting by Garr Reynolds. Valuable for teachers, lecturers, businesspeople or anyone who has to do a talk and doesn't want to bore people to death...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ2vtQCESpka

At varsity there would be some lectures which ran concurrently... one would be virtually empty (often in a bigger venue with a more senior lecturer) and one would have people causing fire hazards by sitting in the aisles.

The latest term is `edutainment'. I have always been a little cynical of motivational speakers... yet I love my job, and very much lean towards the motivational speaker kind of style. Maybe that cynicism was based on whether what was said had practical implications or could be used in some way, or whether it just created an emotional high that would be followed by a low soon afterwards.

Maybe it is cynicism because I know how much we enjoy watching a good speaker, and a feeling that that gives some sort of power which can be used in bad ways.

Despite that cynicism, the book the guy in this clip wrote, and his blog,Presentation Zen, have inspired me.

I would like to put together some non-work related presentations and do them.

Perhaps blogging on some of the issues I would like to do presentations on would be a good way to start getting some ideas.

The two I have in mind are:

1) Study & Exam Techniques... working and studying at the same time.

My entire family are working and studying... so if they are reading this, I could use their thoughts.

2) Financial Planning for the layman