Ok, this is shameless self promotion masquerading as a casual, "Hey I've got an interesting story". I notice that he conveniently left out the part where Alibaba promoted him to VP, Data Science at the same time he started an MSc at Georga Tech which he completed in two years which is an impressive thing to do while you're working so I suspect there is more to the story. If working in NYC has taught me anything, always be promoting yourself while simultaneously putting everyone else down. "I guess I just worked harder and smarter than all those PhD's around me".