When Small Segments Have Big Impacts

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 13:33

Ran across this story yesterday about some smart folks that discovered a statistical quirk in a lottery game in the state of Massachusetts.  The special quirk in this particular game is that the "consolation prizes', when no one wins the super-jackpot by matching all 6 numbers, swell to very attractive levels at times.  Such high levels, in fact, that the math works out to almost a certain profit if you buy enough tickets to cover enough numb

Saving Lives

Submitted by Mike on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 10:36

The American Insurance Association (AIA) has published a report – scant as it may be – trumpeting the large number of lives saved and injuries avoided on American roads, due to increased safety efforts over the past 40 years. Their analysis appears solid: comparing the number of fatalities and injuries per miles traveled over time.

Vanderbilt on Tickets

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 09/01/2009 - 11:15

I've become a big fan of Tom Vanderbilt's work on the world of traffic, and all the sciences behind it, from physics to psychology. His recent book on this subject – Traffic – is marvelous, and I hope to devote a series of blog posts to it. Last week, Vanderbilt had an article online at Slate discussing the merits of traffic enforcement.

He made a number of interesting points:

Farewell Dear Uncle

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 11:37

If my readers will indulge me this once for a personal entry, because of the deep meaning and its connection to my work life…

George Ellis Cook

Thoughts for a Funeral Speech

Intro: I recently attended the funeral for my Uncle in Houston, Texas. When they opened the floor for stories to share, i was too numb to speak. This is what i thought about later that night, what i wish i could have shared…

Whitespace

Submitted by Mike on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 16:26

Part of looking deeper, iji's mantra, is probably better described as "looking differently". Change your focus, your perspective, your angle. Reverse the assumptions and see where that leads you.

One good example of such vision is the use of whitespace. Whitespace is a term from the visual arts that refers to those areas in a design that is left unmarked, the space between graphics and text. It's not just blank space, but an intentional and sometimes integral part of a good design. It is sometimes termed "negative space", but I don't like that term.

I Never Saw The Vehicle, Officer

Submitted by Mike on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:27

Interesting study from 2007 from Steven Most and Robert Atsur, published in Visual Cognition. It is entitled "Feature-based attentional set as a cause of traffic accidents". This research used a driving simulation program that required participants to navigate through streets, following directional arrows of a certain color (yellow or blue). They were instructed to brake only for pedestrians or other vehicles.

Narcissists and Aggressive Driving

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 12:41

With apologies to the Beatitudes:

 

Blessed are the meek

For They Shall Inherit Insurance Discounts

 

Buying Risk

Submitted by Mike on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 09:47

Typically, in the insurance business, we think of companies and agents as "selling insurance", and customers as "buying insurance." But how might our perspective change if we thought of this transaction in a different light? What if we spoke of carriers as "buying risk" and individuals as "selling risk"?

Website Imagery

Submitted by Mike on Thu, 06/25/2009 - 15:04

If you've wandered through our website, you've surely noticed the images at the top of each page. Perhaps wondered "why those?" What do butterflies and violins have to do with consulting, analytics, and insurance?

Office of National Insurance

Submitted by Mike on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 14:11

The big insurance news of the past week is the Obama administration's release of a white paper primarily focused on federal regulations of financial services industries. I'm sure most readers of this blog are fully aware that insurance is regulated at the state level. What makes this white paper news is that it proposes a newly created Office of National Insurance under the Executive branch of the Federal Government. It would be in the Treasury department.