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The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

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Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#271

Post by tomnipotent »

bsheir74 wrote: post #226
sattoshi wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is sad to me how effective the smear campaign against Shkreli was.

There was no campaign. Nobody met in a smoke filled room and decided they were going to ruin the guy's life. What actuallu happened was the guy was a douchebag, and people called him out for it. HN is the only place I find people defending that guy. I suspect it's because this forum is full of douchebags who identify with him.

Humans are complex creatures with many facets, and a crime and shitty PR doesn't change that. Most people don't defend criminals or unpopular opinions as to avoid alienation and judgement.

Generalizing people or groups of people over shallow associations says more about the commenter than those commented on.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#272

Post by nv-vn »

kamaal wrote: post #269
OskarS wrote: post #86

You know who's awesome at Excel? Martin Shkreli. You know, the Wall Street asshole who's in jail now? A while back, someone told me "hey, dude, there are these videos on YouTube where Martin Shkreli uses Excel, and they're fucking magic. It's like the first time you watched someone who's really good at Vim. " It's true: [0]. Say what you will about that little heartless douchebag, he's fucking awesome at using Excel.…

>>You know, the Wall Street ... who's in jail now? He is a seriously misunderstood figure. Have watched his YouTube videos too, not just the investment class but also his working sessions. Sure his excel skills are legendary. But I learned a lot from him about skills, learning and mastery. Merely watching him work not only motivated me. But gave me tremendous perspective on time, its utility to life and how skills an…

Agreed. He really is an inspiration. In jail he's spending his time reading and learning, which you can follow along with on his blog. He's a very intelligent guy and I think he's almost like an anti-hero who's bad at portraying himself. I think if he played his cards right he'd paid a fine and spent no time in jail, but he had way too much fun stirring up a scene.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#273

Post by Something1234 »

MisterOctober wrote: post #237
guelo wrote: post #72

People say "use a real database", fine, but where is the visual data entry? Where are the easy adhoc reports? Where are the forms? I guess if you're on Windows you can use Microsoft Access, but that's the only accesible tool I know of that doesn't require a team of programmers or an enterprise license for some Oracle/SAP type monstrosity.

There is iron in these words. I love using SQL and hate using Excel, but when it comes to common statistical calculations such as standard deviation or a Pearson function, or if you want to generate a graph and can't [or don't want to] use a tool such as Tableau or Crystal, Excel really is easier [or, at minimum, quicker] for generating output sometimes.

I absolutely hate plotting anything excel. I feel so stupid trying to get something to plot. GGPlot works so much better.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#274

Post by riazrizvi »

lewisinc wrote: post #261
riazrizvi wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sweats, "what don't I know?", watches hour long video (v. quickly), wipes brow "phew - it's just basic" .

You mean we had access to Basic in Excel for all this time? I'm really behind the curve!

not Access to Basic, just Basic

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#275

Post by franzwong »

I also have a non-IT friend who worked in a local bank. He mainly produced different kinds of report for analysis. His main tool was Excel and he was very good at it. He told me the reason why he became good at it is, in enterprise, IT resource is grouped into a single department instead of spreading across every department. Acquiring IT resource is difficult and slow. It is faster to just use excel instead of proper tool to generate the reports. Finally he acquired the skill.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#276

Post by kamaal »

nv-vn wrote: post #272
kamaal wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>You know, the Wall Street ... who's in jail now? He is a seriously misunderstood figure. Have watched his YouTube videos too, not just the investment class but also his working sessions. Sure his excel skills are legendary. But I learned a lot from him about skills, learning and mastery. Merely watching him work not only motivated me. But gave me tremendous perspective on time, its utility to life and how skills an…

Agreed. He really is an inspiration. In jail he's spending his time reading and learning, which you can follow along with on his blog. He's a very intelligent guy and I think he's almost like an anti-hero who's bad at portraying himself. I think if he played his cards right he'd paid a fine and spent no time in jail, but he had way too much fun stirring up a scene.

I largely believe now that the left movements across the world have degraded to making a virtue out of laziness, poverty and people lack of ability to take initiative.

There was no way this guy could have survived, in fact Martin should have spent time learning a little politics too.

If you have the kind of skills, motivated enough, have ability to take initiatives and overall quality of human enterprise that this guy has you are bound to attract envy, spite and more importantly people just want to see the end of you for being a live anti thesis to their lives.

I have a feeling that people won't relax until they see Elon Musk meeting the same fate too.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#277

Post by barry-cotter »

weliketocode wrote: post #106

This article seems like it was written 10 years ago. BI, Technical Account Managers, Sales Engineers, and Finance People should all have a decent excel grasp at minimum. Is it that common for there to be desperate needs for minimal competence in organizations?

Yes. The world is full of overwhelming incompetence. After a brief honeymoon period where you're learning almost every job turns into "I'm surrounded by idiots" unless you're the idiot. The exceptions are very effective organisations, and when they're businesses, very profitable or fast growing. Lots and lots of people reach the level of competence sufficient to not get fired and basically stay there.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#278

Post by bayesian_horse »

OskarS wrote: post #86

You know who's awesome at Excel? Martin Shkreli. You know, the Wall Street asshole who's in jail now? A while back, someone told me "hey, dude, there are these videos on YouTube where Martin Shkreli uses Excel, and they're fucking magic. It's like the first time you watched someone who's really good at Vim. " It's true: [0]. Say what you will about that little heartless douchebag, he's fucking awesome at using Excel.…

At least he didn't build any Autobahns.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#279

Post by zachberger »

Klathmon wrote: post #260
dmos62 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who uses "guys" anymore? Didn't stackoverflow replace that?

SO often can take hours to weeks for a good answer, and that's assuming it doesn't just get closed as a dupe when the other one doesn't answer the question. A good "guy" (or girl!) is a phone call away and can often solve the problem in minutes.

Totally agree, that network of SMEs is a huge productivity multiplier

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#280

Post by sooheon »

1000units wrote: post #263
busyant wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> very often slandered and misunderstood. You mean the guy who wrote this? Clearly, he's a diamond in the rough /s. 'Then a letter from Mr. Shkreli came to his home, addressed to his wife. “Your husband has stolen $1.6 million from me,” it read. “Your pathetic excuse of a husband,” the letter added, “needs to get a real job that does not depend on fraud to succeed.” “I hope to see you and your four children homeless,…

Yes. I've said worse to people over much less myself. And I'm a nice guy too.

Is this Poe's law at work?
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