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Spreadsheets are one of the best technological advancements in the past 100 years - and I'm not exaggerating. There is just so much you can do with them; they a
by glimshe 2y ago
Spreadsheets are one of the best technological advancements in the past 100 years - and I'm not exaggerating. There is just so much you can do with them; they are probably the most accessible way for a human to access the power of CPUs and computation. For most problems, I'd rather use a spreadsheet than a general-purpose programming language, because the spreadsheet itself offers a quick away to leverage data structures and functions.
- tombert 2y agoYep, completely agree. I remember I saw a talk six or seven years ago where they said something to effect of "spreadsheets are the best programming language because they allow people to program without even realizing they're programming", and I agree with that sentiment. They give you access to a lot of programming logic, they're visual, they're reactive, they're easy to learn, and maybe most importantly, the results are instant. Instead of having to try and understand data types and scope and having to run a program from scratch for every change, you can just change a value and see the result right away. I use spreadsheets for nearly anything involving "numbers" (outside of stuff with lots and lots of data), because it's a lot less of a headache than setting up a "real" language. They're wonderful.