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This entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense. Probably time to move on. "Don't use Excel for accounting" has to be the dumbest thing I've re

by _se 8mo ago

This entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense. Probably time to move on. "Don't use Excel for accounting" has to be the dumbest thing I've read in a year, even with all of the LLM bullshit going on. And that's including the people this morning who are apparently excited for LLMs to file their taxes.

kami23 8mo ago
I've been having the same feelings lately, especially around the AI doomers coming in with some weird observations that make no sense. I usually don't comment, but seeing a lot of these types of overgeneralized responses. 'oh you do x? You don't do y? You're an idiot' That's not productive.
belter 8mo ago
I have the impression today you will be one of the 10,000: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ But you are correct, this entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense... :-) "Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel" - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/microsoft-365-apps/excel/floating-point-arithmetic-inaccurate-result https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/microsoft-365... "Classification of Spreadsheet Errors" - https://arxiv.org/pdf/0805.4224 https://arxiv.org/pdf/0805.4224 "A study conducted by Coopers & Lybrand found errors in 90% of the spreadsheets audited." "Impact of Errors in Operational Spreadsheets" - https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0715 https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0715 "What We Don’t Know About Spreadsheet Errors Today" - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.02601 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.02601
- _se 8mo ago
  You don't really deserve a response, but even the idea that you could tell someone to not use Excel for accounting and seriously project that you know anything about how accounting works in the real world is hilarious. You could think 500 random internet articles - it doesn't matter. The assertion is still ridiculous. You literally will not be able to get a job as an accountant without being able to use Excel. Don't be an idiot. You can also link to hundreds of articles showing that dynamic types cause errors. People don't care, they still use them when it makes sense to use them. There is no better mainstream alternative for accounting than Excel right now, period.
  - belter 8mo ago
    Not a single reply on the technical and governance arguments? I think we agree...this site is indeed full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense. :-)
    - shimman 8mo ago
      It's shocking and honestly pathetic. "Hey guys the software you use is not accurate" being met with such derision is how we regress as a society, not move forward.
      - bdangubic 8mo ago
        nothing is accurate in the hands of incompetent people
    - _se 8mo ago
      No, not a single reply, because your statement wasn't "Excel can cause problems sometimes". That's a different conversation. You said "Don't use Excel for accounting", which is something you could only say if you have no idea at all about how accounting works in the real world. I'm not arguing about whether or not Excel is perfect, or if it causes problems, or if it makes demons fly out of your nose. I am educating you about the real world and how it's important to understand that no matter how "well akshually" technically correct you are, it doesn't matter at all if the advice you're giving is WRONG and not useful to people. So, I repeat. Idiots confidently spouting nonsense.
      - sdf2erf 8mo ago
        Hah. These are the same weirdos who spoke like this to Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o There's a big difference between geeks and hippies. Too many of the former here and not enough of the latter here - people who can understand other people, culture etc and then think about how technology can fit into ones life.
- nl 8mo ago
  Did you actually read these or just Google for problems? > "Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel" Well.. yes? That's what floating point numbers do. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40168077/floating-point-inaccuracies-in-c https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40168077/floating-point-... So what? > "Classification of Spreadsheet Errors" It's a taxonomy of the types of bugs spreadsheets have. There are these for most other programming languages too. etc, etc Look, my first job was translating an Excel spreadsheet into an actual application and we found errors all the time. Once Excel spreadsheets get too complicated they tend to fall apart. This is very well known by people who use it heavily. It doesn't mean that it is useless.
sdf2erf 8mo ago
"This entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense." Too right - this goes for the arrogant geeks at the within the orgs of LLM producers who still havent displaced call center workers with their technology. Comical stuff. Really is. The lack of disconnect with what people actually do in jobs is absolutely breathtaking.
- rvz 8mo ago
  > Too right - this goes for the arrogant geeks at the within the orgs of LLM producers who still havent displaced call center workers with their technology. Some have shares in these AI companies and need to off-load them either on secondaries or IPO. These are the clear incentives to show performative results to give the impression that you can replace accountants with AI without any of the risks involved.
  - sdf2erf 8mo ago
    Unfortunately if those jokers intend to IPO later this year it wont go down too well. They should've done it 6 months ago.

by _se 8mo ago

kami23 8mo ago

I've been having the same feelings lately, especially around the AI doomers coming in with some weird observations that make no sense. I usually don't comment, but seeing a lot of these types of overgeneralized responses. 'oh you do x? You don't do y? You're an idiot' That's not productive.

belter 8mo ago

I have the impression today you will be one of the 10,000: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ But you are correct, this entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense... :-) "Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel" - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/microsoft-365-apps/excel/floating-point-arithmetic-inaccurate-result https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/microsoft-365... "Classification of Spreadsheet Errors" - https://arxiv.org/pdf/0805.4224 https://arxiv.org/pdf/0805.4224 "A study conducted by Coopers & Lybrand found errors in 90% of the spreadsheets audited." "Impact of Errors in Operational Spreadsheets" - https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0715 https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0715 "What We Don’t Know About Spreadsheet Errors Today" - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.02601 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.02601

_se 8mo ago
You don't really deserve a response, but even the idea that you could tell someone to not use Excel for accounting and seriously project that you know anything about how accounting works in the real world is hilarious. You could think 500 random internet articles - it doesn't matter. The assertion is still ridiculous. You literally will not be able to get a job as an accountant without being able to use Excel. Don't be an idiot. You can also link to hundreds of articles showing that dynamic types cause errors. People don't care, they still use them when it makes sense to use them. There is no better mainstream alternative for accounting than Excel right now, period.
- belter 8mo ago
  Not a single reply on the technical and governance arguments? I think we agree...this site is indeed full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense. :-)
  - shimman 8mo ago
    It's shocking and honestly pathetic. "Hey guys the software you use is not accurate" being met with such derision is how we regress as a society, not move forward.
    - bdangubic 8mo ago
      nothing is accurate in the hands of incompetent people
  - _se 8mo ago
    No, not a single reply, because your statement wasn't "Excel can cause problems sometimes". That's a different conversation. You said "Don't use Excel for accounting", which is something you could only say if you have no idea at all about how accounting works in the real world. I'm not arguing about whether or not Excel is perfect, or if it causes problems, or if it makes demons fly out of your nose. I am educating you about the real world and how it's important to understand that no matter how "well akshually" technically correct you are, it doesn't matter at all if the advice you're giving is WRONG and not useful to people. So, I repeat. Idiots confidently spouting nonsense.
    - sdf2erf 8mo ago
      Hah. These are the same weirdos who spoke like this to Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o There's a big difference between geeks and hippies. Too many of the former here and not enough of the latter here - people who can understand other people, culture etc and then think about how technology can fit into ones life.
nl 8mo ago
Did you actually read these or just Google for problems? > "Floating-point arithmetic may give inaccurate results in Excel" Well.. yes? That's what floating point numbers do. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40168077/floating-point-inaccuracies-in-c https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40168077/floating-point-... So what? > "Classification of Spreadsheet Errors" It's a taxonomy of the types of bugs spreadsheets have. There are these for most other programming languages too. etc, etc Look, my first job was translating an Excel spreadsheet into an actual application and we found errors all the time. Once Excel spreadsheets get too complicated they tend to fall apart. This is very well known by people who use it heavily. It doesn't mean that it is useless.

sdf2erf 8mo ago

"This entire site is full of idiots confidently spouting nonsense." Too right - this goes for the arrogant geeks at the within the orgs of LLM producers who still havent displaced call center workers with their technology. Comical stuff. Really is. The lack of disconnect with what people actually do in jobs is absolutely breathtaking.

rvz 8mo ago
> Too right - this goes for the arrogant geeks at the within the orgs of LLM producers who still havent displaced call center workers with their technology. Some have shares in these AI companies and need to off-load them either on secondaries or IPO. These are the clear incentives to show performative results to give the impression that you can replace accountants with AI without any of the risks involved.
- sdf2erf 8mo ago
  Unfortunately if those jokers intend to IPO later this year it wont go down too well. They should've done it 6 months ago.