To be clear: I'm not bashing Excel. Agree that there isn't a viable alternative for explorative table manipulation, and the experience of "think/change/see-results" is second to none. I myself use it for low-stakes tasks such as personal budgeting and quick analysis to validate my assumptions on tabular data.
Key word there is low-stakes. I think Excel gets a lot of heat because it's often found used in contexts where it's wholly inappropriate to use (eg driving critical production decisions from SalesAnalysis_JimVersion_v1.8_FINAL.xlsx). That's not really Excel's fault.
Key word there is low-stakes. I think Excel gets a lot of heat because it's often found used in contexts where it's wholly inappropriate to use (eg driving critical production decisions from SalesAnalysis_JimVersion_v1.8_FINAL.xlsx). That's not really Excel's fault.