4 ms·

I would be pleased to see the addition of the « fun » factor. In the article, they're comparing the job security, high pay, etc. of a mathematician with the «

by jonrx 13y ago

I would be pleased to see the addition of the « fun » factor. In the article, they're comparing the job security, high pay, etc. of a mathematician with the « it's not much, but I like it» of the lumberjack. Working as an actuary, I am impressed by how many of my coworkers got there because « hey! It pays » and are in fact (not so) secretly dreaming of changing jobs.

walshemj 13y ago
Well you know the old joke Actuaries are people who would find Accountancy jobs a bit to racy and "What is the difference between an introverted actuary and an extroverted actuary? An introverted actuary stares at his own feet during a conversation, while an extroverted one stares at the other person's feet."
bornhuetter 13y ago
I am an actuary, and next week is hopefully my last in the industry; I am going off to do an MBA and then hopefully become a semi-technical founder. I got here for exactly the reason you said, I'm good at maths and it pays well. I'm leaving because it's no fun. I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off sticking to my original plan and becoming a software engineer.
- beachstartup 13y ago
  > I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off sticking to my original plan and becoming a software engineer. depends on the job. a software engineer could be stuck writing business forms. conversely, you could be Nate Silver, the world's most famous and exciting actuary. in this case meaning "well paid guy who does stats and math".
  - bornhuetter 13y ago
    I don't think Nate Silver is an actuary, he's a statistician - completely different jobs. When I went to university (late 90's), the web was still one big geo-cities, there was no such thing as smartphones. I lived in Australia, and unless you were extremely talented you would probably end up working a fairly low paid job doing fairly boring work. The world seems to be a far more exciting and potentially lucrative place for software engineers now.

by jonrx 13y ago

walshemj 13y ago

Well you know the old joke Actuaries are people who would find Accountancy jobs a bit to racy and "What is the difference between an introverted actuary and an extroverted actuary? An introverted actuary stares at his own feet during a conversation, while an extroverted one stares at the other person's feet."

bornhuetter 13y ago

I am an actuary, and next week is hopefully my last in the industry; I am going off to do an MBA and then hopefully become a semi-technical founder. I got here for exactly the reason you said, I'm good at maths and it pays well. I'm leaving because it's no fun. I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off sticking to my original plan and becoming a software engineer.

beachstartup 13y ago
> I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off sticking to my original plan and becoming a software engineer. depends on the job. a software engineer could be stuck writing business forms. conversely, you could be Nate Silver, the world's most famous and exciting actuary. in this case meaning "well paid guy who does stats and math".
- bornhuetter 13y ago
  I don't think Nate Silver is an actuary, he's a statistician - completely different jobs. When I went to university (late 90's), the web was still one big geo-cities, there was no such thing as smartphones. I lived in Australia, and unless you were extremely talented you would probably end up working a fairly low paid job doing fairly boring work. The world seems to be a far more exciting and potentially lucrative place for software engineers now.