I am a big fan of Drew Conway's Data Scientist Venn Diagram.I've talked about it before, and it's even featured in my forthcoming course, "Hired with Excel: What Every Analyst Needs to Know," defining …
How to Learn Excel from Scratch (Slides)
A common reaction I get when people learn I'm an Excel blogger:"Oh, you know Excel? I should learn Excel. Tell me what to do."This is a hard question, because as the old disclaimer goes, "not all …
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The free food fallacy (and where content helps)
This evening, I gave a talk at Case Western Reserve University on financial planning. Well, actually, I didn't. Because nobody came.It doesn't bother me. As a residence life alumnus, no-shows are a …
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The Only IS The Best.
In a recent post, I wrote about what local orchestras revealed to me about the nature of specialization. I argued that specialization doesn't mean just becoming the best in a really specific …
Hold that Date! Timestamped Printouts in Excel
It's not uncommon at my office to see "version 37" of a budget, sales plan, or other big project. Keeping track of all these changes can be a mess.While Excel has some functionality to track changes, …
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High School Orchestra: It’s Life.
High school, they tell you, is nothing like real life.But high school orchestra is surprisingly relevant. I learned what talent, specialization, and expertise really means.In no-man's landI was in a …