Tag Archives: competitive

Excel Exposed: Unveiling the High-Stakes Realm of Competitive Spreadsheets

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sIX years ago, Melbourne-based filmmaker Christina Kraskov was inspired by an article about the international Microsoft Excel competition. Her first thought was, “What on Earth, this isn’t the real deal.” Her second thought: “I need a film about this. I want to see it desperately.”

With no existing films on competitive spreadsheet use, Kraskov resolved to create her own. The topic intrigued her as it showcases “a unique inner world that often goes unnoticed.”

The documentary “Spreadsheet Champions,” which will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, follows six young competitors from various countries as they prepare for the 2023 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship. Introducing their skills, it may seem trivial, but Excel is an incredibly sophisticated tool. The documentary reveals that the average user taps into only 10-15% of its capabilities, whereas competitors must master around 70%.

Organized by Certiport, a performance-based assessment provider endorsed by Microsoft, the competition consists of two parts. The first assesses proficiency in formulas, functions, and overall knowledge through complex questions judged on both accuracy and speed. The second part emphasizes a more creative use of these skills. As Kraskov puts it, “It’s about understanding the narrative behind data or grasping the essence of what it conveys.”




“It helped me a lot”… Carmina, a teenage competitor from Guatemala, spreadsheet champion. Photo: Presented by Melbourne International Film Festival

The championship has been held since 2002 and is open to students aged 13 to 22. Participants must first achieve the highest qualification in their home nations. Despite the niche focus, the stakes are remarkably high, as each competitor can only participate in the MOS Championship once.

“In most sports, there’s a returning champion, creating a defined rivalry; however, here, you can only compete once.”

“This creates unique challenges as competitors qualify in their home countries at vastly different times. Once everyone is qualified, we communicate via Zoom and navigate from there.”

The six featured competitors include Arkimini, 20, from Greece; Braydon, 16, from Australia; Carmina, 16, from Guatemala; Dela Pikes, 19, from Cameroon (who has to study in school due to lacking a laptop or WiFi); Mason, 15, from the United States; and Nam, 21, from Vietnam. Each contestant adds their unique personality to the film, varying from the shy, stereotypical “nerd” to the enthusiastic and outgoing. “Our aim is to showcase how extraordinary this competition is. We’re not here to mock or belittle anyone,” Kraskov explains.




Dela Pikes from Cameroon lacks a laptop or WiFi, so he has had to prepare for the competition through school. Photo: Presented by Melbourne International Film Festival

Kraskov and producer Anna Charalambus spent about a week with each competitor in their respective countries, immersing themselves in their daily lives at home, school, and with families and friends.

“If you observe their lives closely, people naturally reveal their true selves,” Kraskov remarks. “Adolescents are still developing, thus they often don’t connect aspects of their identities – they simply exist in the moment. The insights provided by their parents were invaluable.”

Many contest details were kept secret, adding another layer of challenge for the filmmakers. This competition exemplifies the concept of nominal determinism, overseen by someone deeply invested in security.

“The level of security is extremely high,” notes Kraskov. “Eventually, Microsoft entrusted us and asked us important questions. Ultimately, he must conduct a rigorous, secure global evaluation next year.”

By participating in the MOS Championship, these young individuals are stepping closer to adulthood. Carmina, now 18, is pursuing a degree in mechatronics engineering at university. The film captures her vibrant spirit as a teenager passionate about exploring new things (which remains true).


Watching the documentary allowed Carmina to reflect on her past competition experiences and her younger self, realizing the insights gained. “Even though I knew the outcome, watching it again felt a bit suspenseful,” she shares. “[Competing taught me to engage and explore… it was extremely beneficial.]”

“Spreadsheet Champions” had its world premiere at SXSW in Texas earlier this year, with five out of the six participants attending MIFF. Kraskov takes pride in showcasing these individual stories – ordinary people engaging in something slightly different from the norm.

“Celebrities, musicians, and models tend to hog the spotlight,” she reflects. “But it’s those dedicated to pursuits that many overlook that I find even more compelling.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Maximize AI Technology for Successful Job Interviews and Competitive Salaries

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Charge your research

The concern about artificial intelligence (AI) replacing numerous jobs is widespread. However, in today’s competitive job market, not leveraging AI effectively as part of your search could mean missing out. Balancing the power of technology with the human touch is a tricky task.

You can utilize AI models like this chatgpt and Confused to apply for jobs while also researching employers, competitors, and industry trends.

Career Coach Hannah Salton mentions that some of her clients use AI to gather insights about companies, culture, competitors, and market positioning before applying or networking with small and medium-sized enterprises.

She explains, “For instance, if targeting ChatGpt, you can ask for recommendations on city-based marketing teams and small businesses. However, AI models may not always be completely accurate, so it’s advisable to cross-check results with other sources.”

AI can also help identify necessary skills to adapt to industry changes and build a future-proof career.

For example, jobsgpt from Smarterx’s tools can analyze how roles in your industry are evolving, assess tasks vulnerable to automation, and guide you on acquiring new skills or transitioning to a more demanding field.

Career Coach Eloise Skinner also suggests using AI to help clients find roles and industries that align with their skills, values, and explore beyond their usual choices. Job seekers can seek recommendations for roles matching specific skills, passions, and experiences using platforms like ChatGpt and Confused.

She adds, “AI can suggest roles based on past experiences, values, ambitions, and key skill sets. It can also summarize industry and job insights, such as career prospects, work-life balance, and salary expectations, aiding candidates in deciding where to apply.”

As a human

Hang Lee, founder of Brainfood adoption, notes that applicants often rush their applications out of fear of missing opportunities, leading them to use AI to speed up processes. This trend has resulted in recruiters receiving an overwhelming number of applications generated by common AI tools.

“I’m looking for candidates who sound human and show off their unique voice,” said one recruiter. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/Nurphoto/Rex

Marsab Look, who runs her own stationery brand, recounts receiving over 2,000 AI-generated applications that lacked personal touch, leading to instant rejection most of the time.

She points out, “Apart from the apparent copy-and-paste job descriptions from AI, many applications sound generic. Among thousands of applications, those that stand out are the ones with a human touch, showcasing their unique voice and genuine effort instead of solely relying on AI for research.”

Make sure to personalize your applications by citing specific reasons for your interest in the role, such as using the company’s products or aligning with their mission. Tools like ChatGpt, Grammarly, and Hemingway can enhance grammar and clarity in your writing, but remember to prioritize showcasing your personality and genuine enthusiasm over relying solely on AI.

Defeat the screening system

Today, many large companies utilize AI-powered applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter CVs before human review. These systems scan applications for specific keywords and phrases to rank them based on job description matches.

“One of my clients struggled with their verbal resume,” Salton explains. “They used ChatGpt to highlight key skills concisely while maintaining their authentic voice. It’s essential to maintain a genuine tone.” For instance, you can ask ChatGpt to “enhance my resume, emphasize essential skills and experiences concisely and engagingly while preserving my voice.”

By signing up for LinkedIn Premium Career (£29.99/month after the free trial), you gain access to various AI-powered job search tools.

These include profile writing assistants that serve as CV enhancers, improving headings and summaries to stand out. You can also prioritize three job applications per month as top choices and make your profile more appealing to recruiters with validated badges and personalized messages when applying.

Additionally, you can directly message recruiters even without a connection and use job hunting features on LinkedIn to align your skills and experience with specific job requirements.

Sharpen your interview skills

To improve interview skills, combine AI interview tools with practice sessions with real people. Photo: Luminola/Getty

AI can serve as a valuable tool for practicing interviews. Skinner suggests, “Speaking your answers aloud provides a more authentic practice experience, helping you hear your own voice and identify areas for improvement. It’s crucial to use AI in conjunction with real practice sessions.”

For instance, ChatGpt’s Advanced Voice mode can offer feedback on delivery, pinpointing weaknesses that need addressing and boosting confidence for the actual interview. Activate the audio mode in ChatGpt’s search bar, provide job details, and request mock interview sessions tailored to specific roles for feedback on your responses.

Platforms like Google’s Digital Skills Training provide AI-powered career coaching to improve articulation of your accomplishments.

While AI plays a role in the application process, make sure to prepare adequately for real interviews. Being transparent about using AI for preparation demonstrates adaptability and a practical approach to technology.

Similarly to your resume, Julia Morgon, director of Recruitment Agency Brook Street, advises, “Don’t forget to infuse your personality into the interview; what makes you unique from your peers is what potential employers see most.”

Know your value

Utilize AI-powered platforms like Glassdoor and Payscale to research potential salaries and enhance your negotiation position. These tools can reveal companies that consistently offer above-market pay rates and highlight regional salary discrepancies and variations in remote work.

As roles evolve, so does compensation. Understanding these trends is crucial for negotiating offers, especially considering the average British worker changes jobs every five years, according to a survey by LV =. Platforms like TotalJobs and Reed provide detailed salary insights based on industry, location, and experience level to better benchmark your value.

Tom Buckell, director of Recruitment Company ManPower UK, recommends leveraging research insights in negotiations, such as being flexible with shifts, requesting examples, or training opportunities. “This approach provides more options to enhance non-monetary benefits if a potential employer cannot meet your salary expectations,” he adds.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Snowball Earth’s harsh environmental conditions provided a competitive edge for the evolution of multicellular organisms

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Fossil and molecular evidence suggests that complex multicellular organisms arose and proliferated during the Neoproterozoic Era (1-541 million years ago). An extreme glacial period during the Cryogenian Period (720-635 million years ago), an event commonly referred to as Snowball Earth, led to dramatic changes in Earth's climate and oceans. New research suggests that Snowball Earth was an environmental trigger for the proliferation of complex multicellularity across multiple groups of eukaryotic organisms.

Artist's impression of “Snowball Earth.” Image courtesy of NASA.

Solving the mystery of why multicellular organisms emerged could help pinpoint life on other planets and explain the enormous diversity and complexity seen on Earth today, from marine sponges to redwoods to human societies.

The prevailing thinking is that oxygen levels must reach a certain threshold for a single cell to form a multicellular colony.

However, the oxygen story does not fully explain why the multicellular ancestors of animals, plants and fungi emerged simultaneously, or why the transition to multicellularity took more than a billion years.

The new study shows how the specific physical conditions of Snowball Earth, particularly the viscosity of the oceans and the depletion of resources, may have led eukaryotes to become multicellular.

“It seems almost counterintuitive that these extremely harsh conditions – this frozen planet – could actually select for larger, more complex organisms, rather than causing species to become extinct or shrink in size,” said William Crockett, a doctoral student at MIT.

Using scaling theory, Crockett and his colleagues found that a hypothetical ancestor of early animals, reminiscent of swimming algae that fed on prey instead of photosynthesizing, would have grown in size and complexity under Snowball Earth pressures.

In contrast, single-celled organisms that move and feed by diffusion, such as bacteria, will grow small.

“The world changed after Snowball Earth because new life forms emerged on the planet,” said Professor Christopher Kemps of the Santa Fe Institute.

“One of the central questions of evolution is: How did we evolve from nothing on Earth to beings and societies like us? Was it all by chance?”

“We don't think it's luck. There are ways to predict these big changes.”

The study shows how, during the Snowball Earth era, the oceans froze, blocking sunlight and reducing photosynthesis, which resulted in nutrient depletion in the oceans.

Larger organisms that could process more water were more likely to eat enough to survive.

As the glaciers melt, these large creatures could expand even further.

“Our study provides hypotheses about ancestral features to look for in the fossil record,” Crockett said.

of study Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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William W. Crockett others2024. Snowball Earth's physical constraints drive the evolution of multicellularity. Proc. R. Soc. B 291 (2025): 20232767; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2767

This article is a version of a press release provided by the Santa Fe Institute.

Source: www.sci.news

Argentina’s lithium industry accelerates to fulfill electric vehicle demand, reshaping competitive dynamics

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IIn the vast white desert of Salinas Grandes, 45-year-old Antonio Carpanchay raises an axe and chips away at the earth. He has worked the land since he was 12, splitting and collecting salt, replenishing it for the next season and teaching his children to do the same.

“Our whole indigenous community works here, even the elders,” he says, shielding his sunburned face from the sun. “We’ve always done it. It’s our livelihood.”

As his son watches warily, Karpanchai points north, to a pile of black stones and mud that stands out from the stark whiteness of the plains. “They started mining for lithium in 2010,” he says. “We made them stop because they were destroying the environment and affecting the water quality. But now they’re coming back, and I’m scared. We could lose everything we have.”

Antonio Carpanchay and his son mine and sell salt in Salinas Grandes, Argentina.

The Salinas Grandes are the largest salt flats in Argentina, stretching over 200 miles and containing a biodiverse ecosystem. Sitting in the Lithium Triangle The same goes for parts of Chile and Bolivia.

Lithium is a silvery metal known as platinum and is a vital element in batteries for mobile phones and electric cars. By 2040, global demand is predicted to increase more than 40-fold. But that exploitation has also raised moral debates, pitting the transition to green energy against the rights of local and indigenous peoples.

The sign reads “No to Lithium.”

Thirty-three indigenous communities in the Atacama and Cola regions, fearful of losing or polluting their water resources and being forced off their lands, have banded together for 14 years to try to halt the mining operations. “Please respect our territory” and “No to lithium” are scrawled on dozens of road signs, abandoned buildings, and murals.

But now, with more than 30 global mining conglomerates moving into the region at the instigation of “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milley, the battle lines are being redrawn. Offers of jobs and investment are increasingly dividing communities, with some already reneging on agreements and more expected to follow.

“Businesses are moving in,” Karpanchai said. “I worry about my grandchildren’s future.”

TThe biggest concern for indigenous peoples is water. Approximately 2 million liters of evaporation is required per tonne of lithium. This threatens to dry up the region’s wetlands and already dry rivers and lakes. Industrial-scale pumping also threatens to contaminate fresh groundwater, endangering livestock and small-scale agriculture. The impacts will likely reach farther than the immediate source of the water: as locals say, “water knows no borders.”

Clemente Flores, a 59-year-old community leader, says water is the most important part of Pachamama, which means “Mother Earth.” “Water nourishes the air, the soil, the pastures for the animals and the food we eat,” he argues.

“If we used all the water for mining, the salt flats would dry up. We need water to grow salt. Without salt, there are no jobs,” said Karpanchai, who relies on the freshwater resources to raise llamas and sheep. “Chemicals from mining could pollute the water and pastures. We could lose everything.”

Flavia Lamas, 30, a tour guide on the salt flats, remembers when lithium companies began exploring around 2010. “They said mining lithium would not affect Mother Earth, but then water became a problem. Water was running off the salt flats and after just one month our land started to degrade,” she says.

Flavia Lamas, who guides tourists through the Salinas Grandes salt flats, compares the mining companies to the Spanish colonial army of the 1500s.

According to Pia Marchegiani, director of environmental policy at the NGO: Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (Fern) Environmental assessments leave gaps in understanding the full impact of large-scale development. “This region is a watershed. Water comes from everywhere, but nobody is looking at the whole picture,” Marchegiani says. “You have Australians, Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, but nobody is adding up their water use.”

Wildlife within the ecosystem may also be affected. A 2022 study found that flamingosLithium mining in Chile is slowly killing off coral reefs that feed on microorganisms in seawater.

Communities also fear their land will disappear. Indigenous people consider the land sacred and ancestral, and have lived on it for centuries, but they worry they will be forcibly removed. “We can’t sacrifice our community land. Do you think that’s going to save the planet? Instead, we’re destroying Mother Earth herself,” Flores says.

A painting welcoming visitors to the village of El Moreno features an anti-lithium message.

youUntil recently, the 33 communities fought together as one, but over the past year, cracks have appeared as mining companies have offered economic incentives. “Companies are approaching,” Karpanchai said. “They approach us alone, they come in disguise. People are feeling the pressure.”

Lamas says mining companies are descending on the region like conquistadors in the 1500s. “The Spanish brought mirrors as gifts. Now the miners come by truck,” she says. “We’ve been offered gifts, trucks, and houses in the city, but we don’t want to live there.”

Marchegiani accuses the companies of deploying “divide and conquer” tactics. Alicia Chalabet, an indigenous lawyer from Salinas Grandes, says the community is under “constant pressure” to agree to the demands. “We’re flooded with lithium companies here. It’s increased a lot in the last five years,” said Chalabet, who is currently handling 20 cases. “The community is just an obstacle.”

The community of Lipan was the first to agree to let mining company Rishon Energy explore the waters beneath the saltwater in exchange for promises of jobs and essential services, but some residents say the decision was controversial, and some community members claim not all residents were allowed to vote.

A facility set up by Rishon Energy to explore lithium potential near the village of Lipan. The company claims to employ staff from the local area and invest in their training.

Rishon denies that its decision to mine in Lipan was controversial and says it complied with all regulations that require it to seek local community support in lithium exploration. The company has previously told reporters that it has invested in 15 secondary school and 15 university scholarships, provided computers to local schools, and hired 12 workers from Lipan.

Anastasia Castillo, 38, grew up in Lipan and now lives in a nearby commune. She says neither she nor her parents, who remain in the village, agreed. “I’m very sad. My children’s future is ruined. We have 100 cows and 80 llamas in the area, which is my main job. I’m afraid they’ll die,” Castillo said. “Now we’re separated.”

Anastasia Castillo believes that

Source: www.theguardian.com