On a whim (ok, I was procrastinating at work on social media sites when I should have been doing data analysis), I decided to do a twitter search for things excel like, including "vlookup" that granddaddy of all Excel functions.

Heard recently on twitter;

I just discovered VLOOKUP in excel. This may just be the best day of my life.

I predict your life will get better and better. (It's obviously been no great shakes so far.)

lol, I'm such a banker...I haven't done this stuff in Excel in over 2 yrs, but after like 30 min, I'm back vlookup-in' my a@$ off!

Go, go go!

omg excel documents are boring!

Data is never boring, just misunderstood.

If only Excel would stop freezing, things would be better.

Amen.

Excel crashes everytime I try and make a pie chart. How am I meant to do my report now?

Use a bar chart, you should never use pie charts.

And from the overworked department:

VLOOKUP + CTRC C + CTRL V for 10 hours today.. What a life

starting to see everything in cells and formulas... =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(HUNGRY,DONUTS:BURGER,1,FALSE)),"GO HOME & SLEEP","DINNER")

I hate spreadsheets and I hate data alignment, thankfully I like VLookup

My method of teaching VLOOKUP to people involves telling them to look for the banana in the fruit bowl. Strange? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.

I tend to use the watermelon analogy, but whatever works for you.

I fought Excel and...I won! VLOOKUP function, I own you! (insert evil laugh here)

so boring! you wan't to help me on my essey question? Explain how a #VLOOKUP and a #HLOOKUP benifit business? LOL

Just did an excel spreadsheet with nested VLOOKUP functions. I feel dirty.

I've showed you how to do a vlookup 5x already. If you can't figure this out, mebbe you shld look for a new job.

A job that doesn't require Excel skills? Is that possible?

And one final sentiment:

Excel should die.

There is an excel tweet about every 15 seconds. No wonder the global economy is having some issues on the rebound. Get to work people!

Hindsight is oh so clear, but the recent (ongoing?) meltdown of the credit market still amazes me. There is a good article in Wired this month, talking about some of the math that led everyone astray.

In the end, there is a lesson for data analysts in all this too;

• Do not believe the numbers just because they are telling you want you want to hear.
• If you go looking for something, you can trick yourself into finding it.
• Don't assume just because everyone else is doing something, that it’s a good idea, or it works for your situation.

Managers at the banks went looking for profits and ways to expand their business. They had systems in place that would only tolerate a certain amount of risk, but they basically talked themselves into believing the risk had gone somewhere. It seems to me that the more of them that started using this new system and "new math" the more comfortable they all felt. After all, if the Pros at Citi bank, and AIG, and Lehman's are all using it, it must be valid, right?

What's amazing of course, is that no one asked the obvious question- "How can this investment be AAA when there is nothing but junk in it?" In fact, I am sure they did ask, and got the answer "yes, but they can't all go bad at once- we've proven that with our Gaussian copula function- see?".

But the models were historically based. Which is great, because historical data is easier to get than data from the future. But it does bring into question your assumptions. In this case the assumption history was creating was "Housing prices will keep rising forever."

It’s obvious from the growth between 2001 and 2007 that everyone was getting on the bus:

The other amazing thing was that almost everyone had the same model. Mono-cultures are a bad idea- the tragedy of the Irish Famine in the mid 19th century had many facets, but one of the key ones was the fact that every potato in the country was a clone of all the others. When one potato gets sick, they all get sick. When one bank has a problem... I leave you with a quote (one of thousands) that comes up when you google "Credit Default Swaps"- this was some sage advice from an expert in 2006-

CDS transactions continue to provide a unique method for buyers and sellers to strategically isolate credit exposure to specific reference entities and for obligations in a fast, efficient manner that avoids the shortcomings of the cash markets by eliminating interest rate, asset availability and funding concerns.

What they failed to mention, is that it also avoids any contact with reality.

For me, Cottages are about many things, but one of them is certainly reading.

Although I did read some brain candy - "Hilldiggers" by Neal Asher- which I enjoyed- among others. 

 I also read a "work related"  book -"Microsoft 2.0 How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the Post-Gates Era" by Mary Jo Foley".  I do love the story of Microsoft- and the Love Hate relationships over the years- so I enjoyed it- and it is interesting from a business/industry point of view.

For my Kids the wonderful thing about the cottage is the sugar cereal- (only time of the year any froot loops will be seen anywhere in my household)- and of course being able to live in the water.

But in the end for Dad, going to a cottage (we rent one for a few weeks each year), is all about getting into a separate environment, in a place where just as for the kids "the rules don't apply".  One of the things I like most about the lake we go to in Quebec is that I'm out of Blackberry range.  I can broadcast to everyone before I leave "I'll be out of range" and I get two weeks of freedom from the "15 minute email reply" expectation.  It's amazing how many of my neurons heal and strengthen in those two weeks- building up the reserves for the rest of the year when our little digital task masters whip us daily, wearing us down so that by next July I'll need to retreat once again to the quiet, bit-free and extremely analog world of canoes and glorious unconnectedness.