The siren call of Microsoft Excel

Lisa Pollack:

"Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs," proclaimed a sticker I once purchased in a suburban shopping centre. It fitted in perfectly with my collection of risqué buttons and key chains. As a teenager I had discovered accessorising was the easiest way to at least give the appearance of defying authority.

Fast forward through university, and my entry into the financial industry - where I worked before becoming a journalist - presented a wholly different set of norms to which to conform. Money, rather predictably, was at the centre of many. But a less obvious one had to do with Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software. It seemed to be the right tool for every job, every time, according to almost everyone.

And heck, why not use it for everything? Excel is a powerful computational engine that anyone who is reasonably numerate can bend to their will to perform tasks.

Flimsy rival spreadsheets, from the likes of Google or Apple, cannot compete - too much is missing from them. Discovering that baseline Excel functionality is not there or that favourite keyboard shortcuts do not work, is - to borrow a lyric from Alanis Morissette - like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 13, 2013 12:22 AM
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