Homework, that is.
Oh, I do fine on all the “read this pdf and analyze it for ten pages” kinds of homework. That’s not the least bit hard, and in fact I do believe that the blogging thing, apart from being the hobby that ate my life, has helped to keep the crafting of the written word well within passable standards.
No, I’m talking about the Operations Research homework. This quarter it’s back to Excel spreadsheets, with Decision Tool plug-ins – the kind of things that promise to make your life So Much Simpler, but which require a 300 page textbook to explain, and solver tables and net present value calculations and all the rest of that jazz. Your opinion means next to nothing, gentle reader, when it comes to the objective cell on an Excel spreadsheet. You can’t write your way into a better grade. It’s either entirely right, or pretty much entirely wrong.
I don’t know how you did in college-school, gentle reader. I drifted into the Trade School on the Severn back in the summer of 1978 thinking that it’d be much like the high school that I had just breezily passed a pleasant four years through, discovering the joys of the fairer sex along the way, and never needing the moment’s effort to keep the ‘rents off my back.
I was wrong about all that. There were a lot of very bright young people at Mother B. Some of them had actual study habits. It was pretty much an endurance contest. I didn’t finish first. I finished. And was glad to be shot of it.
But here I am many moons later, staring at a spreadsheet problem like this one:
“A bond is currently selling for $1040. It pays the amounts listed in the file P02_23.xls at the end of the next 6 years. The yield of the bond is the interest rate that would make the NPV of the bond’s payments equal to the bond’s price. Use Excel’s Goal Seek tool to find the yield of the bond.”
Sigh.
Oh, you sit and tease at it and eventually the light comes on, and it’s blindingly obvious and you wonder that you didn’t see it before, the sheer dunderhead that you are – and not a moment before time, I might point out, with the solution coming to mind at 1645 and the homework due at 1700.
Work is nuts too.
I bought the Biscuit a kitten last weekend, down at the shelter. Felt like the right thing to do, and anyways we lost one to the coyotes in the back yard, so it was “cat neutral,” which is important to me. Being a dog person. Told the Kat that, no, she couldn’t have a puppy. We’ve already got a dog. Which, being the youngest, that went over like a fart in church.
I’ve got a guy that works for me that I’m worried near to death about. Which is all I can say about that.
Yeah, I know: You’ve got your problems too.
But this is my blog.
FWIW, I am teaching a stats course for Masters of Public Administration students and they have all complained about the excel work I gave them
I told them Google is your friend, chances are someone else has already done this. Learning how to do things in Excel is more important than figuring them out on your own (most of the time), don’t know how your prof would feel about googling for a hint.
>> Google is your friend
Gratuitous Simpsons reference: I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords!
Honestly, though, I don’t know how we ever lived without it! Me being the sort that gets by with only brief moments of mental lucidity, Google has been a life saver for me over and over. “Your computer is doing what? Is there an error message? There is? Ok, let me research that for you…”
Google can make you a superhero to you co-workers in very short order if you know how to use it.
Excel, on the other hand, is the path to hell, lingua franca of business or not. The only thiing worse is PowerPoint.
Lex
I can relate ….I think its that whole left brain/right brain thing, definitely not pretty. Just another one of God’s numerous ways of displaying His sense of humour. So….what you gonna do …. might as well laugh, better than the alternatives.
Hey at least you were able to keep the house “cat neutral” – nearly spewed my coffee on THAT one. AND dog neutral too…
It’s all about small things Lex, although sometimes I’d happily take larger ones, in proportion of course.
And I admire your fortitude – is it fortified? – taking on school at this stage of life. I can’t imagine having to turn on my “classroom/homework cap”. It’s been defunct for a LONG time now, and likely to stay that way…
Lex,
Invest in an HP 17bii+ financial calculator. Will set you back one Ben. User friendly. Great for solving all sorts of NPV problems.
(I’m taking the CFP in November)
Wait.
They’ve got programs that help you do that stuff?
Probably your future employer learned it with a big sheet of paper, lots of time and, maybe, a calculator. You know, the “right” way.
Young punks.
Went through the same type of class, same software for Excel 18 months ago. The advantage I had is that I use statistics all the time and deal with financials on a fairly regular basis (even as an engineer in a…fairly large automotive company). Don’t worry, the professors tell mainly lies out here, too…
I am xls and ppt, sigh….Unless you can wrangle one of those red-yellow-green-make a decision style jobs!
Shoot the snakes closest to your feet and work out. Easy to say hard to do- following this priority: God > family-friends> work> others, including self..
But you know all that. Like always.
b2
Hey Lex
About this comment
“Yeah, I know: You?
Hey Lex
About this comment
“Yeah, I know: You’ve got your problems too.
But this is my blog.”
Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that it really isn’t? That they just humour you about that?
change your mindset.
don’t think of it as “Goal Seeking”.
put it in terms like “bracketing the target” and “adjusting the fires onto the aim point”…
Excel is “…the path to hell”??? PowerPoint, absolutely, but Excel – I think not.
I’ve been a PM now for 10 years and there is no program more valuable to me than Excel. I’d write every letter and do every structural and wiring drawing by hand, but I’d fight hard before you got me to give up Excel. It’s a damn useful tool is all.
I think MajMike has the right idea – GoalSeek is another way to let the computer adjust fire for effect.
How’s your dog getting on with the new kitten? We’ve a 2 yr old lab mix (also from an animal shelter) and the youngsters want a cat too. I’m resisting right now, but there’s a chance I’ll be over-run on this one.
Good luck with the guy you’re worried about at work – he’s lucky to have a boss who gives a damn.
Regards – Brian
Real men use HP-12C’s.
I still have mine from college and it works like a champ – dents and all. Not like the TI POS’s that start skipping keys after a year or two….
The HP-12/15 is one piece of gear that hasn’t really come down in price over the years – it’s a lot cheaper in inflation adjusted dollars, but still about the same price.
Oh, the dog is all beaten down by years of being subjected to the inherent indignities surrounding living with young children, rabbits, cats, etc, etc.
Sometimes she gets grumpy when the cats rub up against her in that way that cats’ll do. She hasn’t got a mean bone though, and usually harrumpmhs off to her own couch, looking very much like she’d take a gun and end it all, if only she had opposable thumbs.
Probably a good idea to socialize your lab mix with the kitten/cat you’re looking to adopt at the shelter. Some dogs have a hard time with cats.
Where did the Nietzsche quote go on the home page? Bring back pls.
Now Kevin, I’ll not have an ill word said of my Ti-89, I’m of the firm belief it passed more than one course in spite of me.