Whilst watching international athletes competing in the world athletics championships, I cannot help but think about Excel shortcuts. Sad, but true.
Successful athletes put in hours practising and perfecting techniques. These actions then become automatic, thus giving the athletes time to think about tactics. This is just like financial modelling.
In his excellent book, The Brain, David Eagleman writes about how neuroscientists study brain function by examining specialists. Eagleman describes meeting Austin Naber, a ten-year-old boy who holds the children’s world record for cup stacking (transforming stacked columns of cups into symmetrical displays). Eagleman and Naber held a head-to-head cup stacking challenge: the ten-year-old took five seconds, the neuroscientist over forty-three seconds to complete the task. Both were fitted with electrode caps to measure the electrical activity through electroencephalograms (EEGs).
These EEGs revealed that Eagleman, whilst trying to learn a new skill, expended huge amounts of energy to run the complex new task. However, Naber’s brain was almost entirely at rest; specific patterns of physical connections having formed inside his brain. Eagleman writes: “as a skill becomes hardwired, it sinks below the level of conscious control. At that point we can perform a task automatically…. This frees up resources [in the brain] to attend to, and absorb, other tasks.”
Financial modelling requires thought and financial modellers need to maximise their brain capacity so that they can tackle complex issues in a logical way. Therefore, learning shortcuts is an essential part of financial modelling. A disciplined approach is needed and the mouse needs to be consigned to the dustbin in the process. However, it really doesn’t take too long for the shortcuts to stick. After a day or so of forced repetition on a financial modelling course (with no mouse of course), most find that the shortcuts quickly become automatic.
If the great Usain Bolt is looking for a new job, then I would be willing to bet that he would master Excel shortcuts with ease. I would be more than happy to give him some financial modelling training if he so wishes.
Here is a link to the shortcuts I find most useful:
Summary of Useful Shortcut Keys