Survival strategies

Blog Shift – From Life Underwriting Expert to Professional Writer (gasp)

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As I typed the title I heard a collective gasp from the Force.  You can’t be serious?  Professional writer?  Do you know how hard it will be to make a living?

Yes, as a matter of fact I do.

I have this to say to my legions of followers:  do not panic.  Here are the service offering changes to expect this year:

  • I will continue to offer my consulting services on a limited basis to select clients.
  • Life underwriting expert witness litigation support services will continue to be provided.
  • Technical underwriting services are fully committed at this time.
  • Professional corporate writing services for life insurance companies and their respective distribution channels.

There are a lot of very smart people in business today; there are not a lot of good writers. Couple this with the fact that companies need to produce more words, via a greater number of channels, than ever before, and you quickly come to realize that the corporate landscape is rife with opportunity for those who know how to communicate, you know, good.  I.J. Schecter

Here is what to expect from this blog:

  • More natural writing posts.  As I transition to more writing for hire I need to write more.  This blog will the primary landing area for my brain droppings.
  • Less links to what I consider to be essential reading for professional life underwriters.  The links to relevant articles will continue, just not in the frequency and quantity of the past five years.
  • More painfully blatant examples of shameless self-promotion.  Got to eat.  And yes, I still have a mortgage, one child in medical school, one child still an undergraduate, three cars and and a nasty writing habit to support.

I look forward to helping you succeed in your business.

Thanks for reading and your continued support.

Flavonoid-rich Fruit and Vegetables Improve Microvascular Reactivity and Inflammatory Status

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Results: In men, the HF F&V diet increased endothelium-dependent microvascular reactivity P = 0.017 with +2 portions/d at 6 wk and reduced C-reactive protein P = 0.001, E-selectin P = 0.0005, and vascular cell adhesion molecule P = 0.0468 with +4 portions/d at 12 wk. HF F&Vs increased plasma NO P = 0.0243 with +4 portions/d at 12 wk in the group as a whole. An increase in F&Vs, regardless of flavonoid content in the groups as a whole, mitigated increases in vascular stiffness measured by PWA P = 0.0065 and reductions in NO P = 0.0299 in the control group.

via Flavonoid-rich fruit and vegetables improve microvascular reactivity and inflammatory status in men at risk of cardiovascular disease—FLAVURS: a randomized controlled trial.

Mom was right.

Trapped in a Cycle of Internships With Little Pay and No Job Offers – NYTimes.com

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While the idea of slaving away in two, three or four quasi jobs without a clear path for advancement may seem unimaginable to an older generation, those in their 20s seem to respond to their jobless fate with a collective shrug. To them, internships are the new normal. “For some people, being an accountant, taking a safe route, is perfectly fine, but that’s not where my values lie,” Ms. Thomas said.

via Millennials Feel Trapped in a Cycle of Internships With Little Pay and No Job Offers – NYTimes.com.

Passion is overrated.  The real question is how long are you willing to chase your dream before you understand all you are doing is letting other people totally screw you over?

CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST- Administrators and Part-Timers: Changes in U.S. Higher Education Workforce

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I’ll only add that institutions are defined by their people. As the full-time and tenured faculty become a smaller share of the employees of the institution and the professional administrators become a larger share, the nature and character of the institution inevitably changes. In this case, colleges and universities have become less about faculty, teaching, and research, and more about the provision of professional services to students and faculty. As far as I know, this shift was not planned or chosen, and the costs and benefits of such a shift were not analyzed in advance. It just happened.

via CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Administrators and Part-Timers: Changes in U.S. Higher Education Workforce.

$700 or $915 per credit hour, depending on degree.

The numbers above are pulled directly from a university website.  The campus sits just a mile from my house.  The work is part time and I don’t qualify for either pay level.  To work part time teaching at a university you need a minimum of a Masters degree.  So someone who busts their butt to earn a Doctorate can make $915.00 per credit hour.

I’m speechless.

 

Mediterranean Diet Cuts Risk of Diabetes

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Compared with a control diet and a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, the olive oil-supplemented Mediterranean diet was associated with a 40% lower likelihood for new-onset diabetes (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.43-0.85) , according to Jordi Salas-Salvado, MD, PhD, of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain, and colleagues.

Dieters who consumed a nut-supplemented Mediterranean diet did not see such protective benefits (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.61-1.10), they wrote online in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

via Mediterranean Diet Cuts Risk of Diabetes.

Read the article and then the readers’ comments.  The following are some excerpts:

The findings of this study identify inherent weaknesses in methodology. The low fat control group did not adhere to a low fat diet and the improbable risks of CVD were notably higher.

 

I wonder if the researchers would consider the benefits of asking their subjects to spread their food intake more evenly throughout the day rather than the the usual Spanish pattern of negligible breakfast, snack about 11, then large lunch mid-afternoon and a big, late evening meal. Also in my experience travelling in various parts of Spain, the diet includes plenty of pork.’Every bit of the pig but the eyes.’.

 

The olive oil group was probably using that in place of other vegetable oils for cooking and salad. Vegetable oils like soy and corn oil are high in pro-inflammatory omega-6, and are often partially hydrogenated (ie trans fats.) Avoidance of these in the olive group could have made a difference.

 

Be cautious in coming to conclusions based upon this study.  The sample size was small.  Perhaps too little attention was paid to what the participants did not consume.  We all know less red meat is better for health.  The Mediterranean style diet is clearly a healthy diet but I’m not quite ready to attribute all the wonderful benefits to the diet alone.

Think lifestyle.  Despite the increase in US style fast food restaurants in Spain, the overall dietary preference continues to be a Mediterranean diet.  So how much of the study’s effect come from fast food avoidance?

BTW, yesterday was a totally Mediterranean day for me.  Veggie pizza for lunch and a Greek salad with grilled chicken for dinner.

 

 

Google Hummingbird: Are You Still Playing Russian Roulette with Google? – Copyblogger

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However, the funny bit about our endless quest to know how Google ranks pages is that the truth has always been right in front of us: do the hard work of knowing your customer inside and out, establish your authority, and deliver the high-quality content they need.

via Google Hummingbird: Are You Still Playing Russian Roulette with Google? | Copyblogger.

This is a seriously good article.  I recommend it highly if you are trying to establish an online brand.

Low Glycemic Load Diet Lowers Diabetes Risk

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Eating a low glycemic load diet that also follows the principles of the traditional Mediterranean diet can lower type 2 diabetes risk, new research suggested.

People in the study whose eating patterns most closely adhered to the principles of the Mediterranean diet and the low glycemic load diet were 20% less likely to develop diabetes than people who least closely followed the two diets, Carlo La Vecchia, MD, of the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, and colleagues, wrote online in the journal Diabetologia.

via Low Glycemic Load Diet Lowers Diabetes Risk.

I have a very strong family history of diabetes.  A long time ago I told one of the leading endocrinologists in Dallas about my family history and asked what I could do to minimize my risk of developing the disease.

Stay as thin as you can for as long as you can.

Several years ago I adopted a Mediterranean style diet.  When I learned about the glycemic index I started avoiding most foods with a high glycemic index.

Sixty is on the horizon and I’m still not diabetic.

Entrepreneurs Get Better with Age – HBR

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Entrepreneurs Get Better with Age – Whitney Johnson – Harvard Business Review.

Independent Work May Be Inevitable – Whitney Johnson – Harvard Business Review.

Just as larger businesses provide economic stability to society in the form of higher pay, better medical care, and retirement, experienced workers provide intellectual and emotional ballast in the workplace including innovation expertise. Think about it — disruptive innovation is about playing where no one wants to play (low-end), or has thought of playing (new market).

Disruptive innovation.  The more I think about this term the more I begin to realize it is time to change once again.  As a life underwriting expert witness I’ve played in an area where few underwriters get to play.  As I look back on the recent past expert witness work was never the main focus.  The more I think about this the more I come to realize it is time to refocus.

So where do you want to play?