SATURDAY STORY - AUGUST 21, 2021

 SATURDAY STORY - AUGUST 21, 2021

This is a work of fiction, starting in the year 2008 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Math had always been easy for Nita.  She had learned to multiply two-digit numbers by two-digit numbers in her head by sixth grade. As math got more abstract with algebraic equations, it seemed like her brain worked three steps ahead of her pencil.  Calculus?  Not a problem!!  Differential equation?  Still not a problem.  In her junior year at the University of Nebraska, she had first bumped into trouble with topology.  But, after running at the student gym, the concept of “nearness” (the heart of topology) came into focus. Probability and statistics came way-too-easy almost too boring - she loved the abstract rather than the formula aspects of statistics (until she learned that the formulas were really derived from calculus).  

The real difficulty came at graduation time.  Dr. Pam Johnson wanted Nita to go on in math and do graduate work and become a professor.  Nita had aced all of her math classes and did math tutoring in the math lab as well as on her dorm floor.  

Nita grew more and more frustrated.  She loved math, she loved college, but at age 22, it was time to move on.  With her minor in computer science, she thought maybe getting a ‘real’ job might let her apply her math.  Dr. Johnson sat with Nita over coffee twice a week as they talked over potential plans.  Dr. Johnson had connections and colleagues literally all over the globe.  

But, Nita came from a Nebraska farm family.  Her family owned big corn, soybeans, and cattle farm near Central City - about an hour west of Lincoln.  Like many farm kids, she raised animals in 4H and showed them at the county and state fair. Math came easy, but to move to New York City and take an awesome position with Citibank, Chase-Manhatten, or another big financial firm knocked Nita out of her comfort zone.  

Dr. Johnson tried to get Nita to see her potential, but Nita saw herself as just kind of lucky in math, and not a big deal, although Dr. Johnson saw her as a real rising star.  Dr. Johnson did convince Nita that working for Berkshire Hathaway could be a good move.  It would be about two hours from Central City, and an hour from Lincoln.  It also complicated Nita as her girlfriend, Emma, still had many years to go as a Pre-Med student.  The probability that Emma could go to the University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha after graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry made Omaha a reasonable location.  (And, Nita loved Emma, but that could fall apart at any time - just like any romantic relationship.)

Graduation came, the family gathered and helped her move to an apartment not far from Berkshire Hathaway.  She had a car, but she could save money for graduate work by walking to work.  

Her first two weeks on the job were mostly spent learning the business and learning what job she would do at Berkshire Hathaway.  They did have Warren Buffet on video welcoming them to the company, but she didn’t get to see him in person (yet).  

She launched herself into her work. Financial analysis challenged her with various new formulas and processes.  The derivatives were largely worked out on computers, but Nita and her team would do various confidence interval tests for best fit and then extrapolate many factors like treasury bonds, inflation rate, consumer confidence, some ratios from China, Germany, India, and the United Kingdom thrown in for good measure.  Suddenly her statistics became very real in this world.

As the new person on the team, Nita spent time with each of the team members in team building and relationship building.  Although Berkshire-Hathaway functioned as a top company in Omaha Nebraska, corn, soybeans, pork bellies, and cattle futures that were traded didn’t stand tall in fields like back home but were almost abstract ideas like the topology and abstract algebra she had taken.  

*****

But, like any novice, and particularly with a super-smart novice, Nita caught on.  Six weeks in her boss called her into his office to congratulate her work.  She went out for beverages once a month with her team.  Emma joined her a couple of times when her schedule allowed. The hour drive between Lincoln and Omaha flew by.  That stretch of Interstate 80 had extra lanes.  (And, many nights Emma stayed over, and there were weekends when Nita went to Lincoln).  

She got a few emails from the alumni office - subtle reminders to support her institution - and she did.  She also got encouraging notes from Dr. Pam Johnson - also subtle reminders about graduate study.  As the end of the year rolled around, Nita heard rumors that Warren Buffet would show up someday.  And, then it happened. Warren Buffet walked through her department with her manager and gave out Christmas/End of Year bonuses.  As her boss and Warren stood before her, her boss lavished praise upon her and she blushed deeply.

Warren Buffet (the Oracle of Omaha) listened to her boss’s comments he looked her over.  He didn’t know all the people of Berkshire-Hathaway but did like to know the productive ones.  He nodded during her boss’s comments and then added “It sounds like your a great addition to the team Nita.  Welcome aboard”!!!

*****

A week later she got an email from Warren Buffet’s personal secretary (only 67 years old as compared to Warren’s 78 years).  Warren wanted to meet her for coffee in his office on Tuesday, January 21.  Almost immediately, Nita’s head split open - what should she wear, what should she say, how do you address one of the richest men in the world?  Could she say “Hi Warren, how’s things?” Nita laughed at herself for thinking such a casual thought.  The email said that Nita, her boss,(Art VanDeWater), and his secretary (Carol)  would be together.  Nita remembered some of the thoughts about meeting one-on-one with a male boss with the possibilities for inappropriate actions (even if that male boss had passed the 70 years of age level and felt peace at knowing there would be others in the room.  

She took a break and called Emma.  “Hey Emma, guess who I’m going to have coffee with next week?” 

Emma guessed almost correctly - “Warren Buffet and Bill Gates?” (Buffet and Gates were great friends).  

Nita corrected her - “no, just Warren, his secretary, and my boss.  How much money should I ask him for?  A million?  A billion?”

Emma laughed.

Nita said, “I’ll talk more tonight. Love you, babe”.

*****

Nita tried to get information from Art VanDeWater, her boss, but even he hadn’t been in a lot of meetings with the widely recognized Warren Buffet. She did relaxing exercises - like “What is Warren Buffet going to do with me? Fire me?” Her mathematical, logical self knew a CEO never fired people.  She settled on what seemed to be a reasonable answer, he wanted to get to know his new employees and since her boss had praised her, he wanted to get to know her.

Nita and Art were on the top floor of the Peter Kiewit building ten minutes before their meeting.  The corporate office suite came off as tasteful without being gaudy, or ostentatious to Nita.  A receptionist, (the name tag said “Tracy”) greeted them.  Tracy commented, “I would normally offer you coffee, but since you are having coffee with Mr. Buffet today, I will refrain.”  There were current magazines around the reception room - Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and even the Omaha World-Herald.  A credenza held about fifty magazines, including one that Nita recognized that her father read, the Farm Journal.  Nita knew that Berkshire-Hathaway had investments in many fields including agribusiness.  Omaha had five Fortune 500 companies, ConAgra, Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha, Kiewit Construction, and Berkshire-Hathaway.  

At one minute before the meeting time, Warren Buffet came out of his office and invited Nita and Art in.  At a conference table for about eight people sat Carol Psensik, and Mr. Buffet invited Nita to sit between Carol and his seat at the end of the table and asked Art to sit opposite Nita on his left hand.  

“Wow”, Nita thought, “Not only am I in the office of one of the richest men in the world, I’m sitting between him and his executive secretary and opposite my boss - who hasn’t been in the office before.  What is going on?”

Mr. Buffet asked Carol to help with the coffee.  Nita did drink coffee but liked cream in it. Art drank his coffee black, and Carol prepared a cup for Mr. Buffet and one for herself.  Nita figured Carol knew how they liked their coffee.

Now with the coffee in front of them, Mr. Buffet started.

“Nita, this is kind of an unusual meeting, even for me.  I’ve been running some ideas through my brain and with my board of directors for some time and then we met briefly and Mr. VanDeWater described you as a math whiz.  When I get an idea, and then some confirmation, I tend to act on it.”

Warren Buffet went on a long presentation about artificial intelligence (AI), and where he saw AI being applied in business.  

“Computing is getting to be more dependable.” nodding to Carol, he added, “Carol and I have been through enough computing both positive and negative over the past years.”.  Carol gave a little chuckle.  

“There is coming a day, someday, where robotics, artificial intelligence, and business are going to take off and we don’t dare behind the curve.” He stopped to sip his coffee.  He added, “I like my coffee hot and once I get going, I can talk forever and it cools off.”  (This time Carol’s chuckle reverberated much louder).

Then he took what seemed to be another direction. “Nita are you familiar with the concept of Skunkworks?”  

Fortunately, she knew a little of the term - basically a small project of a business to develop new ideas and products.  Nita thought of John Kennedy’s BHAG - “big hairy, audacious goal” to put Americans on the moon and how that must have started as a skunkworks.

Warren Buffet continued.  “I want to develop a skunkworks for artificial intelligence as it applies to agriculture.  I had read your resume when you started her (I read all new hire resumes), and what impressed me was your math skills.  I really hadn’t figured in your farming background until I actually met you that day a month ago.”  He stopped and looking directly at Nita asked “Did you really show cows as a 4H project?” 

That caught Nita off guard, but gathering her composure said “Yes”, and then getting bolder went on “Yes, I showed cows throughout my high school days in 4H.  I served a term as 4H President of our local chapter.”

This time, Warren Buffet chuckled.  “So Carol we have a math genius who knows how to muck out the stable.”  At this, Nita blushed.  Here she sat next to one of the richest men in the world talking about shoveling manure (or BS) out of a barn.  This meeting bordered on amazing.

“So, let me get to my point.  I want to have a skunkworks group look at artificial intelligence and specifically towards applying AI to agriculture, and the future of agriculture.  I don’t want you to spread it around too much, not like that manure you used to spread, but you will be working on this special research project for me.” Everybody in the room laughed as he talked of spreading manure.

“I’m just starting to create the team.  We had an agribusiness group but I really don’t want them to be part of this.  They look at agriculture from around the world in the short and medium-term  as part of our investments portfolio”.  On a short tangent, the weather in Argentina really can affect the agriculture investments market and we must be on top of all the news.”

“I have a call in to Max Reuter at ConAgra.  I want one of his young lions on the team.  We are hiring a person just finishing her doctorate in computer science at Iowa State University, whose dissertation focused on artificial intelligence. Plus some five or six research associates can get you whatever information you want or need.  My CTA, chief technology administrator, will get you whatever computing power you need and whatever software and peripheral resources. 

Turning to Art VanDeWater, he said “Art, I know you have a rather full plate with your current department, but I need an administrator for this team.  I think Nita is maybe still a little young to head up such as team, but she did lead her high school 4H group.” Nita blushed deep red this time.  And Warren Buffet smiled so sincerely at her that she thought she might faint.

Looking back to Art, he added “You and I can talk about somebody in your group that might be a good choice for an interim team leader.” Art nodded.

Looking to Carol, “Can we arrange for another meeting next Tuesday about this time.”

And, back to Nita and Art.  “I don’t really want this spread all over.  Just tell people that you’ve been assigned to a new team working on some new directions for Berkshire-Hathaway, which is the truth, but keep my name out of it.  People just seem to go crazy when they hear Warren Buffet is working on a secret project.    

Continuing, “We have a building on Dodge and 78th street that we will put you.  I tried to think of a good name for you, but my brain froze with the name: Farm Artificial Intelligence Location - I didn’t think FAIL conveyed what I wanted”. Another good laugh and the meeting ended. 

*****

To be continued next week!!!

What will Nita do?  Get frustrated working on artificial intelligence and go get her doctorate and become a professor?  Head up the new activity, and become Warren Buffet’s new star?  Work on the new activity only to be driven out by men?  

Since I haven’t written it yet, I’m wondering what will happen as well!!!

LOVE WINS!!!!

Karen