Description: Editorial Introduction to the issue.

Description: Summary of the issue, with emphasis on common sense and accuracy rather than blind precision. Also describes two F&F contests.

Description: This article is a review of the book by Joshua Foer. It covers the history of memory techniques, the way a human brain organizes memory, and various problems and successes in memory recall. The author starts by interviewing memory savants, and learns from them that the ability to perform seemingly impossible memory tricks is simply a matter of studying and practicing proven techniques used for millennia. This review suggests that actuaries can benefit greatly from some of these techniques despite the availability of electronic hand-held devices to recall facts because the person who does not need to rely upon such devices can have a huge perceptual advantage in executive presentations.

Description: Editorial and issue introduction

Description: This article is a review of the book by Joshua Foer. It covers the history of memory techniques, the way a human brain organizes memory, and various problems and successes in memory recall. The author starts by interviewing memory savants, and learns from them that the ability to perform seemingly impossible memory tricks is simply a matter of studying and practicing proven techniques used for millennia. This review suggests that actuaries can benefit greatly from some of these techniques despite the availability of electronic hand-held devices to recall facts because the person who does not need to rely upon such devices can have a huge perceptual advantage in executive presentations.

Description: Second article in a series on effective writing: focuses on writing for Chinese readers if English; and on writing for English readers if Chinese.

Description: 1. A simplified description of how a genetic algorithm works (requiring no knowledge of biology) and how to build your own. 2. A free Excel workbook that allows you to solve problems without doing any coding; or to let you extend the existing code for your own special needs.

Description: Summary of the July, 2013 newsletter with an executive overview of each article.

Description: Neural Networks are no longer limited to classification and regression solutions to numeric problems. CNNs add the ability to classify images, and GANs can create new images. Learn how these capabilities can provide competitive advantages to early adopters, how they work, and how to implement them.