Testing the limits

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I recently had to go at one of those psychometric tests. You know the ones where some human nature theory is linked to 200 questions, all of which are intricately cross-referenced, to give an insight into your character, using a series of letters like INXS or a colour-coded mood chart.

This one was all about strengths and I discovered that one of my strengths is allegedly “ideation” which is a fancy non-word for “is good at coming up with ideas”. While it’s natural to be a little cynical about these tests, I prefer to agree with this finding. I do like coming up with ideas. Brainstorming is very worthwhile in my book. Sometimes the ideas to come out may seem far fetched, and often I have my actuarial colleagues shuffling me towards the coat stand. But one off the wall idea I had along with a colleague many years ago led to the development of the current menu protectio...

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