Pretty sure someone or even several people had that problem pointed out for years - and the management didn’t care for those “negativlings” and ignored the problem.
The rot starts at the top.
Pretty much all data heavy organisations use excel VERY heavily. And when nobody understands the model within them any more, they need retiring and are usually replaced with… Excel! This time with even more tabs and columns. To replace these things with computer models risks repeating the same problem the original sheet has: bus factors and complexities are hard, more so even in python/r than excel sadly. Maybe one day something will trump it, but that day is not today
SQL would like a little chat with you.
I do this for a living. I’ve spent basically my whole career (15 years full time professional at this stage) basically trying to kill excel. You can’t, or at least I can’t. You can add processes to it, you can programmatically read/write from it, but when it comes down to ditching it: every stakeholder is invested in excel. No other piece of office has the staying power that excel has, it will outlast us all
Because the tech-illiterate people who have authority only know “productivity” tools and couldn’t care less about the opinions of the people who actually know what they’re doing.
Those at the top are often more tech literate than I give them credit for. I suspect it is actually those armies of analysts that are holding it back
The Peter principle says otherwise, but analysts are a factor for sure.
I’ve witnessed the dilbert principle more
Yeah, I have access to database tools to do my job, but I don’t know how to use those tools so I use Excel to do shit it really isn’t optimized to do.
I am 100% part of the problem when I create a spreadsheet with formulas cross correlating data from 41000 entries, 9000 entries, and 1200 entries.
I disagree. It’s way more that they aren’t hiring the right people to do the job. I’ve been asked to do some analysis, but the only tool I know how to use is Excel so that’s what I use to answer the mail. If I had access to a database person to help me build a better tool I’d be happy to not use Excel. But I don’t so I do what I can to do my job.
It’s surely a nightmare for long term usage but is there a software that can beat the functional reactive sort of auto updates when using spreadsheets with a few thousand rows of data? I’d have to actually use my brain to do the same thing as a pivot table in an array programming language.
Any sort of actual database will let you do it. SQL based the obvious answer, but they are all way harder to use than they should be. SQLite never got anything as good as excel sadly, and parquet still lacks a decent windows client. The WYSIWYG of excel really is so intuitive, nothing I know matches it
So Excel=cockroach?
I suspect slightly more useful than a cockroach. Believe it or not, it’s actually good at what it does. That’s why it’s still here. And also why I’m in a job, as there are plenty of things it shouldn’t be doing too
Naw other F1 teams just pay for custom data management software.
Supply chain management software exists. Do they meet f1 demands? Doubtful, but this is why you partner with a software company. They add more, you pay less, and give them some good sponsorship
Do they meet f1 demands?
If the alternative is a spreadsheet that gets updated manually, literally anything would be an improvement.
Markdown file on a shared windows drive enters the chat
You could use a database, and SQL. Or is that crazy talk?
Yes. Your boss needs to be able to double click on an email attachment otherwise it’s like you never even did anything.
But in a language like Python there are established patterns for dealing with complexity unlike Excel lol
How do the handle version control? I’m yet to actually meet it in the wild
Version control for any kind of code can be done with git if that’s what you are asking. There are other systems available too but that’s the standard for most things now.
Python in excel is in git?? Better than I thought
Did you even read the article?
Yup. And extra extra, excel can be beaten for specific examples with lots of extra tooling. But you know what that tooling will also do? Generate excel reports
Generating a report using Excel as a format is a lot different from using Excel as a database.
hmm generating static excel reports doesn’t sound bad, as long as these are used just as output format - basically a familiar GUI.
Yeah, it is a good data dense gui, and is ubiquitous. But now it does python too! What a dreadful decision that was
This doesn’t sound like an Excel problem it sounds like a management/software upkeep/bus factor problem.
I’m going to be the odd man out and say that Excel isn’t even that bad: I use it a lot for RPG simulations and engineering simulations, and not just because CSV is normalized. It can be part of the tech stack, but not in a mission critical way. There’s really no tool like it especially if you are doing simulations.
100%, excel is great for spreadsheets and garbage as a database, yet so many people keep using it as a database. I’m currently pushing for my department to transition their many “excel databases” to proper databases and I’m getting mass surprised Pikachu face because no one else knows they’re not the same.
Well if you’re trying to use Excel as a database, get them behind SQL Server or something. Hell, Access is a step up.
Using Excel outside of simulation proofs is not a wise business decision, because it means (going off my experience) institutional knowledge
Indeed, I’m pushing for SQL but work in a field that sees Excel as a huge improvement over past practices. They’re about one step removed from writing on toilet paper.
My original career was in a much more data intensive field, so I’ve become “that guy” regarding proper data storage and hygiene. Case in point: we sit directly next to IT. Every time we talk about data collection, I’ll get up on my SQL soap box and one of the IT folks will let out a comical groan.
If you’re working with csv data, https://www.visidata.org/ >>>>> excel (assuming you’re comfortable with terminal UIs, anyway). You can very rapidly slice and dice data and for formulas and such, you can just write Python.
Was this article sponsored by Oracle?
Oracle sponsors enough sports like this, the least they can do is offer a discounted/free ERP and then turn it around for their marketing use cases
Free and Oracle? What is today, April Fools Day?
Oh, just for the teams they sponsor. Don’t worry, it still needs to benefit them.
Pretty sure every professional CAD software has interfaces for external parts, which can then trigger an analysis in accounting for parts not on storage.
They should have used an Access database
Replacing a working excel “solution” with access is like replacing an old rickety hammer with a bigger old rickety hammer.
That cannot be true, Access is an enterprise class solution that can handle any workload and the performance is out of this world
Access is an enterprise class solution
Don’t mix it up with Acetone
Huffing is bad for your health
I use Minecraft developed in-game built computers for all my parts inventory needs
clear example of why people should only work on their “single” proficiency. Excel? really?
excel 4 lyfe
