Separating Understanding from Doing | Nico Christie

Nico Christie joins MTS to discuss his victory in the Microsoft Excel World Championship, the strategic separation of understanding from doing, and the structural limitations preventing standard language models from executing complex financial workflows. -- https://x.com/nicochristie -- MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens. Follow MTS: X | ⁠https://twitter.com/MTSlive⁠ YouTube | ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@mtsituation⁠ Spotify | ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV1pjV7CW6Lphm1rM⁠ Apple | ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mts/id1891088763⁠ Substack | ⁠https://mtslive.substack.com/⁠ Interested in sponsoring the show? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ -- Brought to you by: Neon (by Databricks) - Get up to $100K in credits for your startup at ⁠https://neon.com/mts⁠ ElevenLabs - AI that communicates at human level across every channel and modality. https://elevenlabs.io/mts⁠⁠ Kong - The AI connectivity platform. Connect APIs, LLMs, agents, and systems with serious security and governance. https://konghq.com Blitzy - Autonomous software development for enterprise codebases. Ship 5x faster. https://blitzy.com Merge - OpenAI, Dropbox, and Ramp use Merge to get AI to production faster. https://merge.dev/mts AdQuick - Make your brand a billboard. Out-of-home advertising as easy to scale as digital. https://adquick.com Macroscope - AI codebase understanding for engineering leaders. https://macroscope.com/mts -- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:02) What Does An Excel Champion Do (00:04) Decoupling Excel Speed From Financial Knowledge (00:05) Building Superhuman Open World Gaming Agents (00:06) How Agents And Humans Traverse Spreadsheets (00:08) The Next Level Beyond Automated Coding (00:10) What Standard LLM Agents Cannot Do -- Note: This podcast is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies and securities discussed; do your own research before acting on anything you hear.