Excel elicits some equivalent of Stages of Grief in technical people. First, some version “it’s so dumb the world runs this way, I’ll just port a few of <use case> into a modern CRUD web app and people will prefer it since it will reduce errors and be in the cloud”. Then, “oh hmmm the flexibility Excel brings to the user is really hard to replicate in my CRUD app. But I’ll try.”. Then despair - “arrrg if only these dumb users would realize that the flexibility and power of Excel lead to lots of problems! Use my simple CRUD app, please!!!”. Then acceptance (and awe) - “Excel is UI, a DB, and business logic all wrapped in 1 thing that everyone already knows how to use.”
Not saying Excel is perfect. Lots of us have built or are building products that do a better job at specific workflows. But surely it is one of the best pieces of software we have, and if I could only use 1 piece of software forever, it’s probably Excel.
Not saying Excel is perfect. Lots of us have built or are building products that do a better job at specific workflows. But surely it is one of the best pieces of software we have, and if I could only use 1 piece of software forever, it’s probably Excel.