A commonly held myth - each person is right-brained or left-brained..the right-brained individual is strong in creative aspects and the left-brained individual is strong in logical thinking and analysis. Yes, different aspects of our thinking process activates different regions of the brain but there isn't evidence that each person has a dominant side to their brain that drives their personalities.
This myth and stereotype in my view has been particularly damaging to the advancement of the actuarial profession (and STEM in general) in two ways. First, it makes the profession less attractive for creative individuals & creates a self-perpetuating vicious cycle that continuous the "boring actuary" stereotype.
Second, it discourages creativity in the actuarial profession (and makes it seem abnormal), and dampens the spirit of actuaries, making us conservative and less open to new ways of thinking.
These could spell the death of our profession if we don't change.
Why is creativity important for Actuaries?
Actuarial science/maths is a branch of applied mathematics & statistics. Although the modern world doesn't associate creativity with mathematicians, this wasn't the case for most of the history of civilisation and certainly isn't the case now too if we think carefully.
Advancements in mathematics has always been driven by curiosity, creativity and if you permit me to say, a sense of wonder and mystique. Mathematics arose as a result of enquiry into astronomy, nature, time and space, attempts to predict the future (astrology), attempts to tame nature, and just math for the joy of maths. If we look at individuals who are credited as founders of mathematics & physics eg Aryabhata, Archimedes, Pascal, Euler, Ramanujam, Einstein etc they are multi-potentialities/polymaths with an insatiable sense of curiosity and wonder. Their creativity was absolutely astounding and I'm very sure the word "boring" would not suit them at all.
The applications of mathematics? The building of pyramids, homes, cars, all aspects of technology, artificial intelligence, energy - in short civilisation as we know it is impossible without the application of maths.
And actuarial science belongs to this proud family of mathematics, which arose as an enquiry into the study of probabilities, risk, and its quantification.
A distinct characteristic of mathematics is a sense of wonder and creativity, which leads to discovery and advancement of the field.
When creativity is lost, and we become "boring", the possibility of discovery and advancement is lost - that is essentially death for that field of study.
So it is puzzling, how did we come to be labelled as boring? And how can we cure it?
Here's my perspective..
What made actuaries "boring"?
In my view this malady is broader and more widespread than just the actuarial profession.
Education is now mostly seen as a means to earn money, a way to get a "prestigious" title, and to enjoy all the perks that come with it. I commonly hear from actuarial aspirants that they entered this field due to its high income potential (partially true).
That mode of thinking in itself spells the death of creativity. But why did we get here?
Based on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the bottom two steps are physiological needs and security. The top step is self actualisation.
My view is that modern civilisation is constructed in such a way that we are mostly stuck in the bottom two steps. There is no place for creativity and discovery in the true sense in the bottom two steps.
Why are we stuck here? Despite our so called modern fancy advancements, modern civilisation has been structured in such a way that basic financial security is never guaranteed and subject to many threats.
The pressures are enormous - to get a job, a well paying job, a job with decent colleagues, a job that we enjoy, then worry about retrenchment after building all that, then worry about AI's threat of taking jobs away - so much of our energy is just devoted to basic survival needs!! And as a society with scarcity we hero worship billionaires who have amassed scarce resources.
And this is not looking at the situation faced by the majority of the global population suffering from war, poverty, disease, climate change etc.
The outlook indeed seems bleak..what is the cure to revive creativity?
How do we get Actuaries to start dreaming again?
Now it is not possible to ask us to jump directly from survival to self actualisation. This may be possible for individuals, but as a society we need to go step by step.
Instead of creativity as a means of discovery and self actualisation, we need to start with creativity as a means to survival. I see two aspects to it:
Creativity as way to generate income
The promise of a traditional job has faded away in recent years even in the actuarial profession. The supply of actuarial fresh graduates world wide has outpaced demand, making it difficult to land a traditional actuarial role.
In this respect, fresh graduates need to employ creativity to find other suitable roles where they can thrive with actuarial skills. These may not be obvious and some research and homework will be needed to study various industries and companies and their needs for actuarial skill sets.
On the other end of the spectrum, experienced & qualified actuaries are not guaranteed job security. Retrenchments of experienced actuaries are becoming more common, and this can be quite damaging and traumatic. At that level of seniority, the availability of suitable roles may be limited (each company has only one chief actuary and a few heads of actuarial departments at best, and these roles rarely open up), family commitments and responsibilities will be high, there may be geographical restrictions etc. At this stage, my view is that actuarial entrepreneurship is a viable pathway.
In developed countries such as Australia, the UK and the US, it is common for qualified actuaries to be solopreneurs, boutique consultants or even have a mid-sized actuarial practice that may grow larger in size.
Companies will be more willing to employ us in contract roles or on projects, we can explore various markets, and various domains.
Creativity is needed to strategise business pathways and collaborations, create product propositions etc. In Asia this pathway is relatively unexplored...
We can then generate new employment opportunities for actuarial aspirants, creating a positive cycle of opportunities.
Creativity as a means to solve "wicked" problems
There are numerous problems afflicting the world now and many can benefit from creative applications of actuarial skills.
Climate change, ageing demographics, lack of retirement funding, healthcare issues, are a few that immediately come to mind, but there are many others.
We may use actuarial applications to design new products or solutions, modify actuarial techniques to solve new problems or discover new fields of actuarial science altogether.
The way forward...
The world is what it is, and as much as we may wish for it to be in a different way, when we open our eyes it doesn't change.
Making the best of the situation we are in, creativity as a matter of economic necessity and human survival is the best impetus we can have for now...
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