What would Miguel de Cervantes write about the insurance industry? In the new episode of “Paul the Insurer,” Paul takes the father of the modern novel on a journey through the world of insurance policies, claims, and algorithms. The result is a satire with a serious core: Insurance is a promise, and it is judged by whether it keeps that promise.
Don Quixote set out to bring justice to a world ruled by absurdity and self-interest. He mistook windmills for giants and inns for castles. If Cervantes were to look at the insurance industry today, Paul says, he would probably laugh, cry, and pick up his pen. His eye for illusion, hypocrisy, and human dignity would be perfectly suited to an industry that promises protection but whose reality sometimes involves fighting windmills.
The Battle Against the Windmills of Claims Processing
Just as Don Quixote charges at windmills, policyholders often battle invisible adversaries: long wait times, missing documents, technical exclusion clauses. Cervantes would see a small tragedy in every rejection, the moment when human misfortune meets institutional resistance. Paul has him formulate the sentence that sums up the matter: The poor squire broke his leg, and the insurer replied that he should have tied his shoelaces tighter.
The Illusion of Cover
Today, policyholders don’t mistake windmills for giants, they mistake advertising slogans for certainty. Cervantes would gleefully skewering the gap between what is advertised and what’s written in the fine print. Paul calls it a fiction of financial chivalry: the promise shines, but the paperwork remains sober.
Sancho Panza is on intelligence duty
Every dreamer needs a realist. Paul sees claims adjusters and brokers in the role of Sancho Panza: down-to-earth, practical, skeptical. Their work is noble as long as it remains fair, and tragic when it degenerates into defending systems they themselves no longer believe in. Sancho’s question would be uncomfortably relevant today: How can I serve both justice and the premium target at the same time?
Digital Knights and Enchanted Algorithms
Cervantes would likely be particularly fascinated by the InsurTech era. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things resemble the enchanted objects in chivalric novels: powerful, mysterious, and prone to malfunction. In Paul’s portrayal, the digital underwriter appears as a magician who knows everything yet understands nothing. And yet the knight rides on, full of confidence in his algorithmic steed. The punchline hits home: data is no substitute for sound judgment.
The Pride of the Profession
Despite all the satire, Cervantes believed in human dignity. He would have respect for those insurers who listen, explain things without using technical jargon, and pay out without delay. In them, he would see the true knights of modern commerce, rare, perhaps, but worthy of all honor. Not every dream is folly; some save us from despair.
Cervantes Between the Policies
Cervantes would not dismiss the insurance industry, but would challenge it to live up to its own promises. He would call on the industry to see, behind the risk models, the human dramas they represent. The madness lies not in idealism, but in accepting injustice as normal. And perhaps he would write: A claim settled quietly is worth more than a thousand advertising jingles promising false security.
Binci Heeb
Paul the Insurer has additional content that might interest you, such as a series of interviews with insurance industry executives.
Listen to and read: The Illusion of Control
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