Three ideas this year:
All modellers should be given a good puzzle book every Christmas. Puzzles provide respite from the news, certainty in uncertain times and that wonderful moment of pleasure when all is solved. This year I’m hoping for Alex Bellos’s new book The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book – lexical perplexities and cracking conundrums from across the globe.
This year the themes of uncertainty and modelling have loomed large and I find it somewhat amusing (and frustrating) how the press seems to seize on every projection as the truth. Mervyn King and John Kay published Radical Uncertainty earlier this year before the pandemic was even thought about. There is much food for thought here about the differences between risk and uncertainty and the human craving for certainties which do not exist. All modellers need to read this book, particularly the chapter on The Use and Misuse of Models.
And finally, if I may be so bold, I would suggest that the perfect stocking filler for financial modellers is my little book, The Essentials of Financial Modelling. This is intended as an aide memoire, summarises the key areas financial modellers need to know and is available on this website.