The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
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Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#2Readable, non-paywalled version: https://outline.com/epLGYZ
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#3I'm "the excel guy" for a lab of about 100 people, and it is indeed a challenge sometimes. Mostly I just yell at them and tell them to stop using excel sheets as makeshift databases. Then I yell at them some more and make them switch from formulas (which, being written in reverse Polish, are terrible to debug) over to macros. Then I yell at them for recording macros instead of writing them themselves. Then I just do it for them. It's not a ton of fun, but the money is good and the yelling is cathartic.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#4I'm "the excel guy" for a lab of about 100 people, and it is indeed a challenge sometimes. Mostly I just yell at them and tell them to stop using excel sheets as makeshift databases. Then I yell at them some more and make them switch from formulas (which, being written in reverse Polish, are terrible to debug) over to macros. Then I yell at them for recording macros instead of writing them themselves. Then I just do…
My most dreaded words with Excel are:
> Can you help me with VLOOKUP?
Followed shortly by:
> I'm having trouble with a Pivot chart.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#5I do not understand the mindset of not wanting to help other people. Enabling people to learn more about the software they use every day is better for everyone involved. Yes, some problems are too complex to solve in a few minutes, but pointing someone in the right direction requires little to no effort.
Excel lacks the community programmers have and also lacks the learning opportunities given by open-source software. A lot of people struggle to find answers specifically because of this lack of community around using Excel as a tool. I know I personally have floundered learning things that would have been simple to understand had there been someone to guide me, so I try to provide that same support to other people when they face the same obstacles.
Yes, its fun to cringe at people's inexperience. It is also important to recognize we all started there.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#6I'm "the excel guy" for a lab of about 100 people, and it is indeed a challenge sometimes. Mostly I just yell at them and tell them to stop using excel sheets as makeshift databases. Then I yell at them some more and make them switch from formulas (which, being written in reverse Polish, are terrible to debug) over to macros. Then I yell at them for recording macros instead of writing them themselves. Then I just do…
Have you considered trying to get people to use something like Jupyter or R Notebook?
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#7I do not understand the mindset of not wanting to help other people. Enabling people to learn more about the software they use every day is better for everyone involved. Yes, some problems are too complex to solve in a few minutes, but pointing someone in the right direction requires little to no effort. Excel lacks the community programmers have and also lacks the learning opportunities given by open-source software…
Helping others is great and I think most people enjoy it. I think what most people don't like is when it impacts their own work. I've definitely had this issue in my own jobs.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#8But I can fix your printer.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#9I do not understand the mindset of not wanting to help other people. Enabling people to learn more about the software they use every day is better for everyone involved. Yes, some problems are too complex to solve in a few minutes, but pointing someone in the right direction requires little to no effort. Excel lacks the community programmers have and also lacks the learning opportunities given by open-source software…
It's less "not wanting to help people" and more "once people know you're 'the Excel person' they come to you for everything to do with Excel". It's very similar to being 'the computer person' in a family/group of friends and everyone coming to you with all their various tech support questions. At a certain point, it starts ruining your productivity since you get taken out of your regular job to do these one time help requests.
Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It
#10I'm "the excel guy" for a lab of about 100 people, and it is indeed a challenge sometimes. Mostly I just yell at them and tell them to stop using excel sheets as makeshift databases. Then I yell at them some more and make them switch from formulas (which, being written in reverse Polish, are terrible to debug) over to macros. Then I yell at them for recording macros instead of writing them themselves. Then I just do…
Have you considered trying to get people to use something like Jupyter or R Notebook?
"Now you have two problems."