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The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible.

The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible. I'm a consultant and at every client (mostly public sector) I discover new ways of solving problems with Excel which would otherwise not get solved because the blockers to buying "the right tool" are simply too great. At my latest client I've plotted their data on a map by colouring in cells as pixels using custom formatting and zooming right out so it isn't too blocky. It's too hard to get access to GIS software even though other departments in the same organisation have it.

CapmCrackaWaka 5y ago
Good god, qgis wasn’t an option? I think I would rather draw it in MS paint than color an excel sheet like that.
- fungiblecog 5y ago
  No it's not hand-coloured - it automatically updates with the data
  - hugle 5y ago
    Awesome and amazing, I guess it might be a bit hard to troubleshoot or enhance from VBA after the guy left.
    - fungiblecog 5y ago
      No VBA. Just lookups and conditional formatting
      - throwaway426079 5y ago
        Wow. You're a creative person and they're wasting your energy on work arounds for absurd problems. I've been relatively fortunate in my public sector experience: Management have allowed me to use tools other than Excel.
        fungiblecog 5y ago
        Yes, sadly. But the pay is good as a contractor and there are very few other options than public sector where I live
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ivirshup 5y ago
Were you using excel to translate their data to the map, or some external script to create the file? If it's the latter, why not use a plotting library? If it's the former, how did you acquire this unholy power?
- fungiblecog 5y ago
  All the data is in the spreadsheet. When it gets updated so does the map view (along with a bunch of other charts)
- fungiblecog 5y ago
  Not sure what you mean by plotting library but I cannot install any software so all I could use was Excel
  - ivirshup 5y ago
    I was thinking something like matplotlib or gnuplot, but I think we may exist in very different ecosystems. But also, thinking about this a bit more, doesn't excel have the ability to plot geographic data?
    - vicda 5y ago
      Imagine using python without pip or conda. That's what using excel vba feels like.
  - gspr 5y ago
    > Not sure what you mean by plotting library but I cannot install any software so all I could use was Excel I believe you, but isn't it baffling that your superiors couldn't recognize that giving you access to some Python or whatever would vastly improve your productivity, what you produce, and your happiness, all for a grant total of €0 and some de-rigidifying of arbitrary rules?
    - rabidrat 5y ago
      Generally these rules are institutional policy which are there for legal or security reasons. In a 1000-person organization, preventing 990 of them from installing malware is more important than allowing 10 of them to be more productive. A middle-manager does not have the ability to change that policy.
userbinator 5y ago
Even the demoscene created at least two demos in Excel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4DvM9KUyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4DvM9KUyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6Q224UPkc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6Q224UPkc
- herodoturtle 5y ago
  This is amazing. Thanks for sharing! #mode13h
jl6 5y ago
My favorite example of this was a team that needed to process more data than would fit into a normal Excel worksheet, so they wrote their application in pure VBA, reading from and writing to a custom file format, thus bypassing the Worksheet object entirely and using Excel just as a VBA runtime. Like all such bespoke creations, it worked fine, and then the only guy who understood it left.
- fungiblecog 5y ago
  I've done plenty of this too.
slver 5y ago
> The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible. Some see a problem: "Don't use Excel" I see an opportunity: "Evolve Excel so it's fit for this purpose".
NumberCruncher 5y ago
> It's too hard to get access to GIS software It took me a whole 5 seconds to google [1] up. As far as I can remember Anaconda can be installed without admin permissions on any PC and pulling the needed packages is a matter of minutes. Or a Tableau Online account with Tableau Creator desktop app having similar GIS functionality costs a whole 70 bucks a month, OMG. The public sector seems to excel in making up "blockers" to justify why shit doesn't get done. [1]: https://blog.jupyter.org/interactive-gis-in-jupyter-with-ipyleaflet-52f9657fa7a https://blog.jupyter.org/interactive-gis-in-jupyter-with-ipy...
- andylynch 5y ago
  Depends on the org. Some firms block direct executable file downloads and scan for unrecognised code on the network, proxying them all through something like Nexus This is only going to become more common (and necessary) in the wake of things like the SolarWinds hack.
  - NumberCruncher 5y ago
    My Excel skills are a bit rusty but I remember the times when it was advised to not open .doc or .xls files from an unknown source because harmful VBA macros could be executed on opening the file. Did this changed lately? If not, how is opening an .xls file different from installing a non-tested python package from security perspective?
    - fungiblecog 5y ago
      You're mistakenly assuming all IT policies stem from logic.
      - NumberCruncher 5y ago
        Hmm... I should have written making up "blockers" disguised as policies stem from logic. I consider the loop closed. QED
- fungiblecog 5y ago
gspr 5y ago
> The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible. > I'm a consultant and at every client (mostly public sector) I discover new ways of solving problems with Excel which would otherwise not get solved because the blockers to buying "the right tool" are simply too great. I just don't get this. Most of the tasks where I've seen incredibly creative/perverse Excel gymnastics used in real life could have been solved far better with a bit of Python (or whatever). What "tools need to be bought" in the vast majority of cases?

CapmCrackaWaka 5y ago

Good god, qgis wasn’t an option? I think I would rather draw it in MS paint than color an excel sheet like that.

fungiblecog 5y ago
No it's not hand-coloured - it automatically updates with the data
- hugle 5y ago
  Awesome and amazing, I guess it might be a bit hard to troubleshoot or enhance from VBA after the guy left.
  - fungiblecog 5y ago
    No VBA. Just lookups and conditional formatting
    - throwaway426079 5y ago
      Wow. You're a creative person and they're wasting your energy on work arounds for absurd problems. I've been relatively fortunate in my public sector experience: Management have allowed me to use tools other than Excel.
      - fungiblecog 5y ago
        Yes, sadly. But the pay is good as a contractor and there are very few other options than public sector where I live

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ivirshup 5y ago

Were you using excel to translate their data to the map, or some external script to create the file? If it's the latter, why not use a plotting library? If it's the former, how did you acquire this unholy power?

fungiblecog 5y ago
All the data is in the spreadsheet. When it gets updated so does the map view (along with a bunch of other charts)
fungiblecog 5y ago
Not sure what you mean by plotting library but I cannot install any software so all I could use was Excel
- ivirshup 5y ago
  I was thinking something like matplotlib or gnuplot, but I think we may exist in very different ecosystems. But also, thinking about this a bit more, doesn't excel have the ability to plot geographic data?
  - vicda 5y ago
    Imagine using python without pip or conda. That's what using excel vba feels like.
- gspr 5y ago
  > Not sure what you mean by plotting library but I cannot install any software so all I could use was Excel I believe you, but isn't it baffling that your superiors couldn't recognize that giving you access to some Python or whatever would vastly improve your productivity, what you produce, and your happiness, all for a grant total of €0 and some de-rigidifying of arbitrary rules?
  - rabidrat 5y ago
    Generally these rules are institutional policy which are there for legal or security reasons. In a 1000-person organization, preventing 990 of them from installing malware is more important than allowing 10 of them to be more productive. A middle-manager does not have the ability to change that policy.

userbinator 5y ago

Even the demoscene created at least two demos in Excel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4DvM9KUyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4DvM9KUyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6Q224UPkc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6Q224UPkc

herodoturtle 5y ago
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing! #mode13h

jl6 5y ago

My favorite example of this was a team that needed to process more data than would fit into a normal Excel worksheet, so they wrote their application in pure VBA, reading from and writing to a custom file format, thus bypassing the Worksheet object entirely and using Excel just as a VBA runtime. Like all such bespoke creations, it worked fine, and then the only guy who understood it left.

fungiblecog 5y ago
I've done plenty of this too.

slver 5y ago

> The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible. Some see a problem: "Don't use Excel" I see an opportunity: "Evolve Excel so it's fit for this purpose".

NumberCruncher 5y ago

> It's too hard to get access to GIS software It took me a whole 5 seconds to google [1] up. As far as I can remember Anaconda can be installed without admin permissions on any PC and pulling the needed packages is a matter of minutes. Or a Tableau Online account with Tableau Creator desktop app having similar GIS functionality costs a whole 70 bucks a month, OMG. The public sector seems to excel in making up "blockers" to justify why shit doesn't get done. [1]: https://blog.jupyter.org/interactive-gis-in-jupyter-with-ipyleaflet-52f9657fa7a https://blog.jupyter.org/interactive-gis-in-jupyter-with-ipy...

andylynch 5y ago
Depends on the org. Some firms block direct executable file downloads and scan for unrecognised code on the network, proxying them all through something like Nexus This is only going to become more common (and necessary) in the wake of things like the SolarWinds hack.
- NumberCruncher 5y ago
  My Excel skills are a bit rusty but I remember the times when it was advised to not open .doc or .xls files from an unknown source because harmful VBA macros could be executed on opening the file. Did this changed lately? If not, how is opening an .xls file different from installing a non-tested python package from security perspective?
  - fungiblecog 5y ago
    You're mistakenly assuming all IT policies stem from logic.
    - NumberCruncher 5y ago
      Hmm... I should have written making up "blockers" disguised as policies stem from logic. I consider the loop closed. QED
fungiblecog 5y ago

gspr 5y ago

> The most important point about Excel in the work environment is that it's often the only tool people have so they make it do things way beyond what is sensible. > I'm a consultant and at every client (mostly public sector) I discover new ways of solving problems with Excel which would otherwise not get solved because the blockers to buying "the right tool" are simply too great. I just don't get this. Most of the tasks where I've seen incredibly creative/perverse Excel gymnastics used in real life could have been solved far better with a bit of Python (or whatever). What "tools need to be bought" in the vast majority of cases?