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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

#31

Post by stronglikedan »

css wrote: post #5

I 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…

In many companies, once you touch something, you own it, regardless of who's responsibility it was prior to your involvement. In that type of environment, it's often best to feign ignorance, while sending them links to resources while saying something along the lines of, "I think this may have something to do with what you're trying to accomplish."

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#32

Post by drspacemonkey »

css wrote: post #5

I 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…

>Enabling people to learn more about the software they use every day is better for everyone involved

I agree, but the flaw in your assumption is that the people who want help from "the office Excel guy" want to learn more. Much like being the "family computer guy", the person asking for help is really asking for you to just fix the problem.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#33

Post by peatmoss »

crooked-v wrote: post #6
onychomys wrote: post #3

I'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?

Past a low complexity bar, I feel like R is a much easier answer than Excel. Excel can get pretty hairy pretty fast. As you mention below, debugging even terrible R code is easier than debugging Excel.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#34

Post by kelvin0 »

There should be a gameified excel online course. You've got challenges which you must overcome by learning ever increasing advanced excel concepts.

This would have people more 'engaged' at learning the concepts instead of trying to find the 'excel person' and dump their woes onto them.

Excel is great product (I hate it) but so often misused and abused by technically challenged individuals.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#36

Post by matwood »

css wrote: post #5

I 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…

> I do not understand the mindset of not wanting to help other people.

I love helping people, but I also want them to become self sufficient. My first question when someone asks me for help is "have you typed into Google exactly what you just said?"

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#37

Post by ams6110 »

peatmoss wrote: post #33
crooked-v wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered trying to get people to use something like Jupyter or R Notebook?

Past a low complexity bar, I feel like R is a much easier answer than Excel. Excel can get pretty hairy pretty fast. As you mention below, debugging even terrible R code is easier than debugging Excel.

Really? I took a stab at R about a year ago and found it utterly confusing.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#39

Post by izacus »

semitext wrote: post #17
mynameisvlad wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is my experience working in offices like law firms that are filled with people that have limited technical aptitude for using software. Showing any sort of competency is a recipe for increasing your workload with no conferred benefits.

That's fine, the problem is that you also get all the blame as well. Once you "fix" a computer, everything that will break will suddenly be your fault.

Re: The First Rule of Microsoft Excel: Don’t Tell Anyone You’re Good at It

#40

Post by simonbyrne »

css wrote: post #5

I 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…

There is also a lack of what is considered "Excel best practices", for want of a better word. The only resource I've seen along those lines is Joel Spolsky's "You Suck at Excel" video (which is excellent, and should be necessary viewing for anyone who use Excel on a regular basis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c
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