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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

#331

Post by Too »

cpeterso wrote: post #97
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…

> I just yell at them and tell them to stop using excel sheets as makeshift databases. What do you recommend to them as an alternative for makeshift databases? There could be a nice product opportunity for a lightweight database web app that is like Microsoft Access or a spreadsheet without formulas. Airtable probably fits that bill, but even it might be more complicated than many people need.

Sqllite is probably the easiest makeshift database. There are tons of applications for graphically viewing it and with python which comes with a built in sqllite-module programmatic access is so easy.

Otherwise nowadays with Docker almost any DB could be spun up locally within seconds.

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

#332

Post by watwut »

pmiller2 wrote: post #190
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a thing a few months back about some Western game developers collaborating with Japanese counterparts for the first time, and their biggest surprise was that a whole lot of game data is stored in an Excel file during development. If you want to change an enemy's stats or a physics parameter, you don't dig through config files with a text editor, you just pull up the spreadsheet. Reportedly it made a lot of twe…

I don’t understand how editing a number in an excel file is any easier than editing a number in a text file. What was it that made the difference?

Because non developer is able to find it at glance. And then he is able to see how related values chaged - at glance with zero effort and delay.

And non developer can easily write own formula to next cell whenever he feels like and don't need to wait for programmer, don't need to explain and don't need to fight if programmer happen to be stubborn.

Even seeing what depends on what is easier with right excel plugin then debugging scripting code.

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

#333

Post by accatyyc »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #306
Nullabillity wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then use a real database. You probably have a SQLite dependency anyway, so take advantage of it. Or don't, since SCMs are much better at diffing plain text than either. > Also Excel could have formulas which might be useful somewhere and supporting formulas in config file is another level of complexity and almost certainly it'll be worse than Excel. You'll have an easier time reimplementing Excel's formula system tha…

> You'll have an easier time reimplementing Excel's formula system than basic arithmetic? I find that hard to believe. I'm not sure you understood what the parent was saying? This seems like a non sequitur. In a spreadsheet, derived values can be updated instantly. Say you want to upgrade a bandit from leather armor to chainmail (6 or so equipment items changed), and then verify that his total defense and modified mo…

All this sounds very useful! If I ever decide to make a game I will definitely use a spreadsheet as database.

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

#334

Post by hfdgiutdryg »

nv-vn wrote: post #272
kamaal wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>You know, the Wall Street ... who's in jail now? He is a seriously misunderstood figure. Have watched his YouTube videos too, not just the investment class but also his working sessions. Sure his excel skills are legendary. But I learned a lot from him about skills, learning and mastery. Merely watching him work not only motivated me. But gave me tremendous perspective on time, its utility to life and how skills an…

Agreed. He really is an inspiration. In jail he's spending his time reading and learning, which you can follow along with on his blog. He's a very intelligent guy and I think he's almost like an anti-hero who's bad at portraying himself. I think if he played his cards right he'd paid a fine and spent no time in jail, but he had way too much fun stirring up a scene.

[flagged]

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

#335

Post by shabble »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #306
Nullabillity wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then use a real database. You probably have a SQLite dependency anyway, so take advantage of it. Or don't, since SCMs are much better at diffing plain text than either. > Also Excel could have formulas which might be useful somewhere and supporting formulas in config file is another level of complexity and almost certainly it'll be worse than Excel. You'll have an easier time reimplementing Excel's formula system tha…

> You'll have an easier time reimplementing Excel's formula system than basic arithmetic? I find that hard to believe. I'm not sure you understood what the parent was saying? This seems like a non sequitur. In a spreadsheet, derived values can be updated instantly. Say you want to upgrade a bandit from leather armor to chainmail (6 or so equipment items changed), and then verify that his total defense and modified mo…

Your first couple of points reminds me of a talk[1] about using a graph database for tracking all sorts of entity and quest dependency relationships to assist in game balancing and content creation.

[1] https://www.airpair.com/neo4j/posts/modelling-game-economy-w...

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

#337

Post by rabidrat »

guelo wrote: post #72

People say "use a real database", fine, but where is the visual data entry? Where are the easy adhoc reports? Where are the forms? I guess if you're on Windows you can use Microsoft Access, but that's the only accesible tool I know of that doesn't require a team of programmers or an enterprise license for some Oracle/SAP type monstrosity.

Isn't this Salesforce?

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

#338

Post by 1000units »

viraptor wrote: post #329
1000units wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that kind of reaction is out of line, please kindly let me know where you keep your 1.6 million dollars. Thanks.

It is out of line. It's one thing to be angry at a person, another to wish bad things on their family/children who likely had no part is the issue.

Any time we find ourselves benefactors of evil, we must advocate against it and thank anyone who may have explained to us where we stand.

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

#340

Post by porlune »

mynameishere wrote: post #243
lozaning wrote: post #129

If we're sharing awesome excel videos, You Suck at Excel with Joel Spolsky has to be among the best I've ever seen. Joel, being on the team that made excel, has an incredible amount of excel knowledge. The video is meant to be in the same vein as the You Suck at Photoshop videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c

He's got a Bloomberg console and he's typing data manually from a PDF into Excel. That's just got to be the incorrect workflow. If not, there is room for huge improvement in financial tools.

I asked Shkreli about why he didn't automate his process, once, during his live stream. He quipped back that he'd been doing this for long enough to know how to do it and that I wasn't the first to ask him. Never did get a clear answer; but I'm assuming it has to do with what rahimnathwani said.
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