100% agree with everything you said. Excel itself is never the problem. It user error, and sometimes even "boss of the user error," that leads to both situatio

100% agree with everything you said. Excel itself is never the problem. It user error, and sometimes even "boss of the user error," that leads to both situations you describe - analysis paralysis and overreliance. I call out the "boss" concept because as some people get away from what leads to the numbers that are ultimately output to aid in the decision making, they can sometimes rely on the numbers too heavily relative to other, less "hard" but more important qualitative factors. It also can become an expectation that "robust analysis" is always conducted, and the time required outweighs the value created. Obviously not always the case, but just a tendency you see in things like investment banking, corporate business development, private equity, venture capital even --- For the record - without excel my job would be nearly impossible, so I love it. I just took the chance (and am getting the downvotes for it) to put a reminder out there for the less hard-data centric fields you should always add critical thinking to what is an impressive tool.