Business Trends

What Grok Thinks About This Blog – 01.04.26

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

lifeunderwriter.net is a personal WordPress.com blog run by an experienced life insurance underwriting professional (the author uses the handle “SupremeCmdr” and has been posting since at least 2008).

The site’s tagline is “Curated Content From a Life Underwriting Professional”. It primarily features:

  • Curated links to external articles, studies, and news items
  • Commentary and personal reflections from the author’s perspective as someone who has worked in life insurance underwriting (assessing mortality risks, medical records, risk classification for policies, etc.)
  • Insights related to the insurance industry, mortality trends, health/longevity topics (e.g., vitamin D in older adults, obesity treatments, nutrition, diabetes risks), retirement planning (e.g., deferring Social Security), remote work in insurance, and occasional broader thoughts on society, technology, or resilience

The content often ties back to how various medical, lifestyle, or demographic factors might influence underwriting decisions in life insurance, but it has evolved over time into a more eclectic mix. Recent posts (including into 2025) frequently cover:

  • Health and nutrition (e.g., protein’s role in diets, GLP-1 drugs, probiotics)
  • Personal anecdotes (cooking recipes, music like Pat Metheny)
  • Retirement and aging commentary
  • Industry observations (e.g., older workers, AI’s effects)

The blog is not a commercial service site offering underwriting services (an older page mentions “Underwriting Solutions LLC” from around 2006–2017, but those appear to be in hibernation or discontinued). It functions more as a personal journal / link blog than a formal resource or forum.

It remains active with regular (sometimes frequent) posts, though the style is informal, opinionated, and not strictly professional/academic. If you’re in the life insurance field or interested in mortality/longevity topics through an underwriter’s lens, it can offer interesting curated reading; otherwise, it’s a niche personal blog.

It has evolved over time into a more eclectic mix?

How about always been a more eclectic mix!

My Statin Comes From India

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

According to the USP, the bulk of the APIs come from India. That country is responsible for 50% of the active pharmaceutic ingredients. China is not far behind at 32%. The European Union supplies 10%. That’s a big change since 2000. Back then, European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark supplied 42% of the APIs. Drug Recalls From India – Can You Trust Foreign-Made Generics? – https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/more-drug-recalls-from-india-do-you-trust-foreign-made-generics

Dozens of companies received approval from the FDA over the years to sell metoprolol and bupropion in the U.S. Yet from 2018 to 2024, the agency reported running only 2 tests on metoprolol and 7 on bupropion through its quality surveillance program — in each case, by pulling a sample from a single drug maker. In many of those years, the drugs weren’t tested at all, FDA records show. Those that were assessed received passing results. The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, So ProPublica Did – https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-generic-drug-testing

ClinCalc DrugStats Database – https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/

Both articles are long reads but worth your time.

Yikes.

Scary Charts – 12.04.25

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Through November, employers have announced 1,170,821 job cuts, an increase of 54% from the 761,358 announced in the first eleven months of last year. Year-to-date job cuts are at the highest level since 2020 when 2,227,725 cuts were announced through November. It is the sixth time since 1993 that job cuts through November have surpassed 1.1 million. Challenger Report: 71,321 Job Cuts on Restructurings, Closings, Economy https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-71321-job-cuts-on-restructurings-closings-economy/

Yikes.

In my less than illustrious career I’ve suffered 100% reductions in income multiple times. Hopefully the newly unemployed have some form of a fallback plan.

Stay safe. It’s fugly out there.

What ChatGPT Run Through Duck.ai Thinks About This Blog

/ SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

Lifeunderwriter.net is a blog mainly focused on topics related to life underwriting in the insurance sector. It covers various aspects of the underwriting process, success tips for professionals, and insights into the life insurance industry.

Key Features of the Blog

  • Curated Content: The blog displays curated content from a life underwriting professional aimed at sharing knowledge and resources.
  • Topics Covered: Posts may include discussions on underwriting practices, medical news relevant to underwriters, career tips, and personal insights about the industry.
  • Regular Updates: The blog has been active for several years, with posts dating back to 2008, and it appears to encourage subscriber engagement.

Recent Posts and Themes

Recent entries suggest a mix of industry insights and personal reflections. Topics range from the impact of emerging trends in underwriting to the importance of keeping updated with medical advancements.

If you’re interested in specific articles or themes from the blog, let me know!

What Grok Thinks About This Blog

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Lifeunderwriter.net is a personal WordPress blog titled “Curated Content From a Life Underwriting Professional.” It features reflective commentary, curated articles, and personal anecdotes written by an anonymous life underwriting expert (someone with over 15 years of remote work experience in the field). The content spans topics related to health, longevity, demographics, lifestyle, risk assessment, retirement planning, nutrition, and broader societal issues like AI’s impact on critical thinking or remote work trends.

Key Features and Content

  • Blog Posts: Entries date back to at least 2008 and include recent ones from 2024–2025. Examples include discussions on vitamin D supplementation for older adults, coffee’s link to atrial fibrillation, Social Security finances, cognitive disabilities tied to income/education, and personal reflections on retirement or resilience.
  • Themes: Heavily influenced by the author’s professional background in life insurance underwriting (e.g., assessing mortality risks, medical summaries for policies), but it extends to non-professional topics like cooking recipes, music (e.g., Pat Metheny), or even cheese production history.
  • Style: Informal and opinionated, with embedded links to external studies, charts, images, and disclaimers. It’s not a commercial site—no services are actively offered, though older posts (e.g., from 2017) mention “hibernating” outsourced underwriting services like attending physician statement summaries.

Audience and Purpose

The blog targets readers interested in a underwriter’s unique lens on aging, mortality, and wellness—think professionals in insurance, finance, or health, plus general audiences curious about evidence-based life hacks. It’s more of a personal journal than an authoritative resource, emphasizing work-life balance (e.g., the author’s low-stress remote setup since ~2006) and long-term planning like deferring Social Security to age 70.

No direct contact info is listed, but it’s hosted on WordPress.com for easy following. If you’re in life insurance, it might resonate with underwriting pros navigating industry shifts like accelerated processes during COVID-19.

Cheese production history?

Random Thoughts on Retirement (or why I continue to work)

/ SupremeCmdr / 10 Comments

Congress needs to get serious about tweaking various aspects of Social Security, but this time to improve the financial aspects of the system, and not to make them worse, as it had done in January.Social Security Fiscal Year 2025: Trust Fund Balance, Income, Outgo, Deficit, and Interest Rates https://wolfstreet.com/2025/11/18/social-security-fiscal-year-2025-trust-fund-balance-income-outgo-deficit-and-interest-rates/

The Boss (SWMBO) and I talk about this often. Once the W2 income stops and we have to rely upon a small corporate pension, savings, and a shaky Social Security promise we’ll have to get conservative on our spending. No more Stratocasters. Less purchases for wardrobe enhancements. Gas station beer instead of craft brews.

Time will tell.

SWMBO – She Who Must Be Obeyed

Yikes.

Remote Work – Not The Norm

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Nearly One in Five Americans Works From Home Regularly – https://www.statista.com/chart/35389/regular-remote-and-home-office-work/

I started writing my journal in 2005. One of the best things about keeping a journal is the ability to verify if memories from the past are accurate or the made up, mashups your brain creates as memories. Here’s my entry on Monday July 24 2006:

A 4:00 PM meeting with the Division head with an HR rep present is never a good thing. I immediately thought to myself:

“This is gonna suck.”

And it did, big time. I got whacked today.

And that’s how my WFH life began. When my work from home situation arises in conversation most are surprised to learn I’ve been WFH this long. I’m surprised how long I’ve been working from home!

I am convinced due to having a low stress working environment, better diet (NO office snacks/free food/lunches out), no commute, along with a host of other variables I just might be increasing my lifespan. I do know I get plenty of sleep on a regular routine basis.

Short sleep duration (< 7 h per night) was associated with a 14% increase in mortality risk compared to the reference of 7–8 h, with a pooled hazard ratio of 1.14 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.18). Conversely, long sleep duration (≥ 9 h per night) was associated with a 34% higher risk of mortality, with a hazard ratio of 1.34 (95% CI 1.26 to 1.42). Sex-specific analyses indicated that both short and long sleep durations significantly elevated mortality risk in men and women, although the effect was more pronounced for long sleep duration in women. Both short and long sleep durations are associated with increased all-cause mortality, though the degree of risk varies by sex. Imbalanced sleep increases mortality risk by 14–34%: a meta-analysis – Ungvari, Z., Fekete, M., Varga, P. et al. Imbalanced sleep increases mortality risk by 14–34%: a meta-analysis. GeroScience 47, 4545–4566 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01592-y

What ChatGPT Thinks About This Blog

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Here’s what I found on LifeUnderwriter.net (the blog):

  • It is a blog hosted on WordPress at [lifeunderwriter.net] titled “Curated Content From a Life Underwriting Professional”. lifeunderwriter.net+2lifeunderwriter.net+2
  • The posts cover a variety of topics — not strictly life-insurance underwriting: health topics, longevity, demographics, lifestyle commentary. For example, a post from September 2024 titled “The Placebo Effect: When the Mind Becomes the Medicine” touches on aging and life-expectancy issues. lifeunderwriter.net
  • The blog seems to be running for a long time: there are archived posts going back at least to November 2013. lifeunderwriter.net+1
  • It appears to use standard blogging content and isn’t obviously a commercial site for underwriting services or a carrier guide. It seems more personal / commentary-oriented rather than strictly professional underwriting guidance.

My assessment

  • If you were looking for professional underwriting guides (for example, detailed carrier requirements, rating classes, medical tables, etc.), this blog may not be the best or most authoritative source — it seems more reflective/opinion-style rather than official.
  • If you were interested in someone’s perspective who works in life underwriting and writes broadly about risk, life-expectancy, aging, etc., then this blog could be quite interesting.

Concerning Trends in Retirement – More Less Than Random Thoughts

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  • Lack of sufficient savings
  • Inflationary pressures
  • Rising credit card debt
  • Half of respondents said they had saved less than what was needed for retirement.
  • When we asked an open-ended question about why they rated their satisfaction with retired life as they did, inflation was a major reason.

The ‘Concerning Trends’ in Retirement Now – https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/concerning-trends-in-retirement-now

I’ve decided not to retire. Wait, let me clarify my statement.

I’ve not changed my mind about my decision not to retire five years ago.

I love double negative sentences.

 Fewer than twenty percent of older people worldwide enjoy a retirement pension that is enough for them to live off. Although countries like China and India are now also developing their pension systems, the prospect of most older people receiving pensions totaling 60 to 70% of their final salaries remains a long way off.

The invention of retirement – https://www.swisslife.com/en/home/blog/interview-matthieu-leimgruber.html

The majority of our friends are retired. I’m always asked when I’m going to retire. My quick answer was always “Don’t know”. I’ve since modified my response to “Two to four years”. This has been my answer for the past two years. Might still be my answer next year too.

https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/retirement-planning/the-90-rule-of-retirement-live-long-and-prosper

Nearly 40% of Americans ages 55 and older were employed in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a striking shift that’s even more dramatic when you look at the oldest workers. Today, 2.8 million men over 70 are working in the U.S. — part of an extraordinary long-term transformation in which employment among Americans 75 and older has quadrupled since 1964. More Americans are ‘unretiring’: 5 money factors to weigh before joining them – https://www.aol.com/finance/retirement-planning/article/unretiring-is-trending-5-money-factors-you-should-consider-first-153926242.html

I think I’ll retire in two to four years.

Some Common Sense on Artificial Intellignce

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If you’re using these systems for anything that matters, you need a verification pass that goes way beyond a lazy skim. That means detail-oriented human work — you must check every claim, every diagram, every link, every word, every line of code, every outcome and citation and fact. And who’s best positioned to verify? The very people who are already good at whatever the AI is trying to do: the workers it’s supposed to replace.

Doctors can check medical claims. Senior programmers can check AI coding outputs. Strong copywriters can check that whatever GPT writes sings — they know a good turn of phrase when they read it and can make sure each paragraph flows from the one before it.

That’s the biggest irony of AI work. If you’re not already good at the task it’s doing, you can’t tell if what it generates is good. You don’t have the knowledge or the context. If you don’t know French, then you don’t know if a French translation sounds clunky or if you just told someone to eat shit in your new commercial because of new slang that sounds like the phrase you translated. No, AI won’t take all the jobs. Here’s why. – https://www.freethink.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-wont-take-all-the-jobs

The full essay is worth reading. Enjoy!