Blog – Tuesdays with Mary

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 I’ve been thinking about storytelling. During an episode of one of my favorite podcast shows earlier this week, the host was asked by the guest, “If you could go back earlier in life and give yourself a piece of advice, what would it be?” The host replied he would tell himself the biggest secret of success he has learned thus far: “become a better storyteller.”  That advice seems especially on point, just now. This week I enjoyed catching up with two long-respected colleagues, sharing our views on the current state of our industry. One of these [...]

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 I’ve been thinking about the fact that things have been a little intense lately. We don’t mind working hard, and we aren’t entirely allergic to change. Yet lots of buzzing about and things to keep up with can wear a brain out. When that happens, I check in with the fine folks over at Mental Floss for a mental reset. Here are a few random remarkable facts that helped my brain adjust, and I hope they will help yours, too. Enjoy! When Disneyland first opened in 1955, Tomorrowland was designed to look like a year in [...]

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 I’ve been thinking about habituation. A long-time friend and colleague of mine is known for her fondness of the phrase It Is What It Is. It’s both an enigmatic and a rather matter of fact phrase, and I think it means different things to different people. Recently I was thinking about it with respect to the title industry. As human beings, we can habituate to both positive and negative things. It’s part of how our brains work, and we can habituate at surprisingly rapid speed. It can be a steadying force, as author Cass Sunstein describes [...]

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 On Sunday, March 17, October Research’s CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer and I presented to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC’) Title Insurance Task Force.  In addition to featuring key elements of our State of the Industry special report and our Voice of the Title Agent annual survey results, we presented a segment on a Day in the Life of a Title Agent.  Below is an excerpt from the presentation. If you ask title agents and underwriters about the days in their lives currently, they would reply that they feel they are especially and uniquely [...]

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 I’ve been thinking about the evolution of our work as it relates to the maturation of information technologies. Which doesn’t make me at all unique; much of the world is discussing the topic given the introduction of large language models (LLMs) of artificial intelligence (AI). I’ve been listening to tech reporter Kara Swisher’s new book, “Burn Book.” If you don’t know Kara, she was in Silicon Valley from pretty much the beginning. Her insights are illuminating, all these years later. Notably she states, “When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck. When you invent [...]

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 I’ve been thinking about oddities in American culture and recently came across the story of Emperor Norton. If you’re not familiar, an odd gentleman living in the San Francisco area in the 1800s proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States – Norton the First. Amazingly, a large number of people humored him in supporting his reign. It’s a fascinating story. Mere citizen Joshua Norton first succeeded wildly and then ultimately failed in business, losing the inheritance from his father as well as his own money in real estate deals and as a commodities broker.  Though at [...]

Tuesday, March 5, 2024 I’ve been thinking about regulators. Since 1871, a group of the chief insurance regulators from each state and the District of Columbia have gathered to coordinate, monitor, and protect their oversight of the glorious patchwork quilt that is our state-based insurance system. They’re called the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and they want to better understand how what you do helps keep their citizens protected. Next week, we’ve been invited to help with that mission. If you’ve learned over the years to skirt the dreaded cocktail party question, “What do you do?” (for fear of [...]

Tuesday, February 27, 2024 I’ve been thinking about how to keep your company safe from the new trend in fraud tactics, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) impersonations. Did you see the reports lately of the $25 million heist in Hong Kong? The bad guys can now impersonate you, on video with your voice, convincing your staff to wire money away, because you told them to. Let’s break down how this one happened. It all began as most do, with a phishing email. The request within it left the employee skeptical. However, it didn’t ask for any immediate action. Eventually [...]

Tuesday, February 20, 2024 I’ve been thinking about change and how it is often gradual, but also inevitable. This is true for relationships, careers, and yes, even matters of political persuasion and policy. Let’s jump back into the courtroom at SCOTUS and look at an example. Arguments for case number one, Relentless Inc., wrap up. We aren’t certain whether Loper Bright Enterprises will be called immediately next, or if there will be a break first. Some of us on the tiny wooden chairs in the alcove are really hoping for a break, our bodies need to move. Many of the [...]

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 I’ve been thinking about our courts, their workload and decisions, their continuing to function at a time when some other branches of government noticeably are not. I’m willing to bet that everyone reading this has at least one major issue of displeasure with a Supreme Court decision. If you’re like me, there might even be a decision or two you vehemently disagree with. And that’s OK. If we lived someplace where I was in agreement with everything they said, did, thought and wrote – my guess is that wouldn’t be a place some of you would [...]