11 ms·
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
by OskarS 8y ago
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.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFSf5YhYQbw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFSf5YhYQbw
- incadenza 8y agoTo think he could have chalked up the price hikes to an Excel formatting error! I think we all would have related. Real missed opportunity.
- toyg 8y agoBut maybe he’s so good, nobody would have believed he made an error. Or maybe he did make an error, but didn’t want to admit it to avoid damaging his “l33t excel skillz” rep. That would be the stuff of legend.
- joering2 8y agoSince we are in douchebags ratings, it is fair to point Heather Bresch which is much bigger heartless bitch than Shkreli. If there were justice in USA, she would be behind bars! https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/09/21/mylan-ceo-heather-bresch-epipen-congress-house-testimony/90773250/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/09/21/mylan-ceo-he...
- alecco 8y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFSf5YhYQbw#t=1h1m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFSf5YhYQbw#t=1h1m He is fast typing but I've seen spreadsheet jockeys do a lot more work much faster. They know all the shortcuts. They know all the obscure functions.
- cm2187 8y agoAnd looking at the video, I'd say that's a slightly above average level of excel skill compared to what you can find sometimes on trading floors.
- Bishonen88 8y agoDoes being good at excel mean that one knows the shortcuts of navigation? The video indeed showed that Martin knew his ALT+, CTRL+ etc., but is that what differentiates an excel pro from a newbie? I thought that 'knowing' excel goes much deeper than the navigational shortcuts: solver, array formulas, powerpivot, vba etc. etc. - this is what I'd call more sophisticated excel features. If someone clicks the number format dialog or hits ctrl+! and then goes from there, surely shows if someone uses excel every day but not if he 'knows' excel.
- pq0ak2nnd 8y agoIn my 25+ years of using Excel, here's what makes a pro: 1. Someone who knows how to use two dimensional TABLE()s and vector functions. 2. Someone who can implement an imperative convergence (such as Newton/Raphson or non-plug-in goal seek) 3. Someone who can audit their dependencies and not shit out dozens of unused vars 4. Someone who knows the limit is 10 sheets and 20MB. :) Visual Basic and shortcuts do not a pro make. VB makes Excel =less= usable, IMHO because now there is an extra dimension to debugging that requires understand each Macro and what it touches: it breaks the entire philosophy of show formulas + auditing. Yes, this sounds like /r/iamverysmart and /r/gatekeeping, but I'll own that.
- tomnipotent 8y ago> 4. Someone who knows the limit is 10 sheets and 20MB Excel can now deal with many gigs of data thanks to PowerPivot and the addition of an in-memory database.
- shawn 8y agoSay what you will about that little heartless douchebag There's no reason to couch your comment like this. He's not a heartless douchebag, and the claims of him causing medicine shortages were greatly exaggerated.
- nerdponx 8y agoCitation needed? Seriously, if there's evidence to morally exhonerate him, let it be public information.
- bsheir74 8y agoThere are plenty of people whp are great at excel but you chose to talk about him. Don't give that guy any more attention. Thats what he wants. Lets all just forget about him and go on with our lives.
- sattoshi 8y agoIt is sad to me how effective the smear campaign against Shkreli was.
- KyeRussell 8y agoReally, dude? That made you “sad”?
- mohammedbin 8y agoInsurance firms send a clear message- fuck with us and we completely ruin you. And before anybody downvotes me- please inform yourself- not a single person had to pay a penny more than what they had to pay before the price increase, except the insurance firms.
- brianberns 8y agoYou realize that insurance companies pass their costs to their customers, right?
- JetSpiegel 8y agoI thought the point of insurance companies was that the customers wouldn't pay the full cost.
- paulryanrogers 8y agoIt's passed on in aggregate, spreading the burden. Except now the burden gets heavier for all because some companies find a way to leverage the most vulnerable.
- 1000units 8y agoHe's not heartless, but he is very often slandered and misunderstood.
- busyant 8y ago> 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,” the letter said. “I will do whatever I can to assure this. Your husband’s arrogance is infuriating, and making an enemy out of me is a mistake.”' -NYTimes, 18 July 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/business/dealbook/former-employee-testifies-shkreli-threatened-him-and-his-family.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/business/dealbook/former-...
- 1000units 8y agoYes. I've said worse to people over much less myself. And I'm a nice guy too.
- sooheon 8y agoIs this Poe's law at work?
- 1000units 8y agoIf you think that kind of reaction is out of line, please kindly let me know where you keep your 1.6 million dollars. Thanks.
- viraptor 8y agoIt is out of line. It's one thing to be angry at a person, another to wish bad things on their family/children who likely had no part is the issue.
- superioritycplx 8y agoThanks for posting the video. Please do some research on Martin's story.
- bauerd 8y agoWhere would I start? I know next to nothing about that guy besides the headlines about the drug price raise. Wikipedia doesn't paint a brighter picture either tbh.
- kamaal 8y ago>>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 and knowledge need to work in general. This guy has legendary skills in investing world. But apart from that he was always reading a book or two. He was doing organic chemistry, chess, playing guitar, learning programming and interests in wide variety of topics in economics. He was first genuine example of 10k hour practice I have watched live in practice. You also get to look into the mind of this guy, and see what's at the core of it, and you see most is basically 'knowledge and practice'.
- nv-vn 8y agoAgreed. 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.
- kamaal 8y agoI 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.
- hfdgiutdryg 8y agoHoly shit, it's official: HN is chock full of sociopaths now. So long, HN, you were... mediocre at best.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoAt least he didn't build any Autobahns.
- kinleyd 8y agoOne powerful use of Excel is through Apache POI. Replace VB with the language of your choice, run all your logic and tests in that language, and spit out a spreadsheet at the end of it, all neatly formatted for your end users.
- Rainymood 8y ago>little heartless douchebag Steal money from poor people? No problem, just a small fine. Steal money from rich people? Off to jail you go. I'm not saying that what Martin Shkreli did was right, i.e. he did not go to jail for raising the prices on medicine (for which he had good reasons). He went to jail for lying to investors in a sort of Ponzi scheme using new investments to pay off old debts.
- wirrbel 8y agoHe had reasons. I think the reason is called greed. Whether or not you consider greed a good reason is your call.
- dahart 8y agoNeither action was right, but it’s not fair to frame this as the same action in both cases with the only difference being whether the victims were rich or poor. The price hike was rent seeking, not stealing, it didn’t depend on any lies, and it was legal. Plus, the goal was to get the money from insurance companies, not from patients. The investment fraud required lying, it was stealing, and it was illegal. The drug price hike may have been justified with lies, I’m not claiming there weren’t any lies, but buying the rights, hiking the price, and getting the money didn’t require any lying, and it was done in full public view.
- liftbigweights 8y agoPlease watch your language. And like most things, shrekli wasn't as evil as the media paints him out to be and equally, he wasn't as great as his supporters think he is.
- acct1771 8y agoErrr....sorry, but, respectfully: fuck you, this is the Internet.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- icantdrive55 8y ago1. He raised the price of a drug legally. Yes, I was flabbergasted. He had the audacity to raise the price all at once. The rest of the heathens raise it over inflation, hoping we will not notice. I don't think strict capitalism, and medicine mix. 2. Yes--he was caught by the SEC. I doubt there's a successful Investor out there who hasen't used inside information. They went after him because they didn't want him to be the poster child of the 1 percent. 3. My amature deconstruction of Martin's psyche: The guy always struck me as someone whom needed a girlfriend. I imagine he went after women whom were way out of league. He didn't want the aggressive MBA he saw at work, he wanted the liberal, punk rock, maybe goth girl. Women of a certain age, whom don't care about money. He wanted the carefree musician whom didn't worship the all mighty dollar. I remember the pictures of him in his hoodie, and looking like a hurt little boy. I felt he was still advertising for that special someone who might appease that longing for the right woman. I always felt if his psychology needs were met, he wouldn't have put so much energy into making just money? My point is I don't think he grew up as the anticrist. He just did what the other boys did, but got caught. I still think he has a future when he gets out. I'm hoping the right wonan will give him a little honest love.
- xivzgrev 8y agoIt's a long video is there a specific point where the magic happens? I skipped around and all I saw was him copying and pasting and setting up basic algebra formulas.
- HyperTalk2 8y agoWhy do you people always feel the need to make statements about Shkreli, Trump, etc. in a format like "he's an asshole, but X"? Why not just say X?