Perspective

            An Indian anthropologist studied a tribe called the Asu. The tribe worshipped a rare, strong, bull-like creature called the “Rac”. From the outside looking in, the rac is only detrimental to the tribe. It breeds at such a rapid rate, overcrowding is becoming a problem. The tribe spends excessive amounts of money and effort to pave roads for the racs to walk on. To make matters worse, the racs are prone to racing and crashing into each other. Since only a few people in the community have the right training and selection of charms, treating the rac is expensive. Through all of this, the Asu people still see the rac as essential to their tribe. At the age of sixteen, it’s seen as a rite of passage to appeal to a high priest and receive a rac. In fact, wealthy families own herds of racs to display their prestige. Members of the society without a rac are considered lower esteem.

            After reading this story, most of you would agree that the Asu tribe would be better off without the rac. Most people read the story of the Asu and can easily rattle off different plans of action to help the tribe. Without even knowing the full history of the rac in the tribe, we immediately start to judge them or make up ways to “fix” them.

            Well, the Asu tribe and the rac are not real. When spelled backwards, “Asu” is “USA” and “rac” is “car”. The first time I heard this, it took me a minute, but everything matched up. America spends millions of dollars paving roads for our cars to drive on, car service is expensive since there aren’t many shops, and cars are consistently racing and crashing into each other. Wealthy people show off their social stature by owning collections of lavish cars while people who don’t own cars are often seen as lower class. It’s even expected that we get a license and a car when we turn sixteen. It’s easy to see a problem in someone else, but it’s hard to see the same issue in yourself. For example, I turned 16 a little over a month ago now. On my birthday, I was expected to get my license and a car soon after. In my mind, I need a car. I need to travel to school and to all of my extra-curricular activities and the only way I can do this is with a car. However, someone may argue that I could bike to school, which is safer, or I could ride a bus to my extra-curriculars, which is better for the environment. Even with all of the alternatives and disadvantages of having a car, I’m still convinced that it’s the best option for me. The story of the rac is meant to show us that it’s easy to see the faults in other people, groups, and societies, but hard to see the problems in our own daily lives.  

Link to original story: www.drabruzzi.com/sacred_rac.html

ACTUAlly

Warning: The following blog post is not particularly entertaining, silly, or similar to my previous posts in any way. I’m trying a different, more serious approach. (Who knows how long that will last).

During the past couple of months, I’ve been researching possible first cars for myself. From convertibles to sedans, off-roaders to motorcycles, I think I can say that “I’ve seen it all”. One of the most important characteristics of the car is that it must have low insurance rates. I’m sixteen and, as many people know, men under the age of twenty-five are consistently charged more for car insurance than people of other demographics: middle-aged women, teenage women, elderly men, etc. Angry with what I previously perceived as “age discrimination”, I started to wonder, “who decides these insurance rates anyway?” After doing a little research, I found a group of people called actuaries. Actuaries use recent statistics to predict the likelihood of future events. They estimate the probability and economic cost of natural disasters, design business strategies to minimize risk and maximize profitability, and produce reports to explain their proposals and calculations. I wondered, “Aside from insurance, how else does Actuarial Science affect my everyday life?”

One way is through basketball. Our team examines our statistics and an opponent’s stats to determine how we should play an upcoming game. For example, during the one of our conference tournament games last season, we evaluated the statistics of our opponents. Their top scorer was a 6’5” center scoring over 20 points per game. We also saw that most of these points were scored right after offensive rebounds. To decide how we would guard this player, we looked at the statistics of our own team. A common trend in basketball is that the taller players tend to get the most rebounds. We decided that the best matchup for this opponent would be our 6’2” center who averaged the most defensive rebounds per game on our team. We predicted that this would be the most efficient matchup because it would limit the opponents number of rebounds, therefore limiting their scoring.

I’ve always been pretty set on going to college and pursuing an engineering degree. This past summer though, I went to a camp focused on actuarial science. I learned a lot about this new subject that, before about February, I didn’t even know existed. One primary takeaway from this experience is that actuaries make money. Not to say that engineers don’t make money, but the work to income ratio as an actuary is much more favorable. Maybe I’ll toss engineering to the side and work at Geico one day.