WEBVTT

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Hi, have you ever looked at something that everyone

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else accepts and wondered, what if there's a

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better way? Many years ago, I was preparing students

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for actuarial exams. The traditional approach

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was pretty straightforward. Read the material,

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study the formulas, and if time, work problems

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and take practice exams. There was nothing wrong

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with that approach, but I became curious. What

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if we focus more on practicing rather than passive

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reading? And a professor friend of mine went

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one step further and asked, what if the difficulty

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of the questions could adjust to the student's

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skill level? What if students spent less time

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on questions that were too easy or impossibly

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difficult and more time in that zone where real

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learning happens? And at that time, These were

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not answers. These were questions. Questions

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that eventually led to an idea. And that idea

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became a company called Coaching Actuaries. And

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one of the tools that we developed was called

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ADAPT. The goal was simple. Help students practice

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in a way that was consistent with their current

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skill set. In short, it was focused practice.

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And looking back, I realized that coaching actuaries

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did not begin with expertise. It began with curiosity,

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a willingness to challenge assumptions, wondering

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whether things could be done differently, a desire

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to explore possibilities that did not yet exist.

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And I've noticed this pattern occurs over and

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over. The people who create and invent, improve

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and innovate, are often not the people who have

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all the answers. They're the people who are asking

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questions. They notice assumptions that everyone

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else takes for granted. And they become curious

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enough to imagine alternatives. Sometimes growth

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comes from working harder. But it has been my

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experience that growth also begins by asking,

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what if there's a better way? So as you go through

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your day, Consider this. What assumption have

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you stopped questioning? It might be about your

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work, or maybe a relationship, maybe your faith,

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or even yourself. Maybe a little curiosity is

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all it takes to discover and adapt to a fresh

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possibility.