{"id":2273,"slug":"excel","name":"Excel","type":"concept","created_at":"2026-08-08T04:46:28.381318+00:00","hidden":0,"aliases":[],"episodes":[{"id":"6def84a0-d897-4ea1-88ea-65315abab034","slug":"s20e04-a-software-strategy","subject":"s20e04: A Software Strategy","title":"A Software Strategy","publish_date":"2025-08-18T16:44:11+00:00","year":2025,"month":8,"season":20,"episode":4,"episode_label":"s20e04","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s20e04-a-software-strategy/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1941,"context":" … Sufficiently advanced <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheets are custom software that are a competitive advantage).\n\nYou don’t\nhave\nto use custom, in-house software forever. There probably will be a … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"3e91c132-35d3-4f06-abc0-57527178dc1e","slug":"s18e06-low-hanging-fruit-information-processing","subject":"s18e06: Low-Hanging Fruit, Information Processing, and People Problems","title":"Low-Hanging Fruit, Information Processing, and People Problems","publish_date":"2024-04-04T18:08:26.658098+00:00","year":2024,"month":4,"season":18,"episode":6,"episode_label":"s18e06","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s18e06-low-hanging-fruit-information-processing/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2193,"context":" … Ten people dying because of a preventable <mark>Excel</mark> error, or an <mark>Excel</mark> accident that was preventable because it had happened before, is Too Terrible.\n\nAnyway, I digress.\n\nThe … ","reading_minutes":11},{"id":"1347d3b4-4b7e-4645-b073-a50576a676d1","slug":"s18e03-a-re-introduction-streaking-still","subject":"s18e03: A Re-introduction; Streaking Still Considered Harmful; Pulling the Cord and Then What?; Tiny Bits","title":"A Re-introduction; Streaking Still Considered Harmful; Pulling the Cord and Then What?; Tiny Bits","publish_date":"2024-03-21T17:08:04.623874+00:00","year":2024,"month":3,"season":18,"episode":3,"episode_label":"s18e03","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s18e03-a-re-introduction-streaking-still/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1886,"context":" … 1.4 Tiny Bits That Caught My Attention\n\nIn “Blame <mark>Excel</mark> for Things” news is Williams Racing, which ran a 20,000 item sort-of-ERP system (really … ","reading_minutes":9},{"id":"d6023349-390e-4053-8b6d-33576ea99cb1","slug":"s17e05-unreliable-narrators-palate-cleansers","subject":"s17e05: Unreliable Narrators; Palate Cleansers","title":"Unreliable Narrators; Palate Cleansers","publish_date":"2024-01-12T23:50:12.832014+00:00","year":2024,"month":1,"season":17,"episode":5,"episode_label":"s17e05","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s17e05-unreliable-narrators-palate-cleansers/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1789,"context":" … If you view this\nMicrosoft Support article about the ROMAN function in <mark>Excel</mark>\n(which, uh, converts Arabic numerals to Roman numerals as text) then I think you’ll … ","reading_minutes":9},{"id":"bc88b5ed-0dc6-4bc0-9d0d-b3439bedb63c","slug":"s14e17-good-enough","subject":"s14e17: Good Enough","title":"Good Enough","publish_date":"2023-03-07T23:53:25.384336+00:00","year":2023,"month":3,"season":14,"episode":17,"episode_label":"s14e17","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s14e17-good-enough/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2585,"context":" … that's attached to an email and is then re-entered in an <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheet saved in an arbitrary location on Sharepoint\" to \"writing a tortuous Jira ticket … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"0712101c-45d1-40ad-ba9b-eb8e186e39be","slug":"s14e13-concept-art","subject":"s14e13: Concept Art","title":"Concept Art","publish_date":"2023-01-31T19:18:31.093068+00:00","year":2023,"month":1,"season":14,"episode":13,"episode_label":"s14e13","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s14e13-concept-art/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1916,"context":" … work has always expanded to fill time\n\n\"<mark>Excel</mark>\" and spreadsheets have democratized programming, so many more people can do it now than your dedicated IT team, to everyone … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"f7987aec-779b-40be-8895-d964cec36f2a","slug":"s3e15-cheap-portable-shareable-video-has","subject":"s13e15: Cheap, portable, shareable video has consequences but maybe not what you think","title":"Cheap, portable, shareable video has consequences but maybe not what you think","publish_date":"2022-10-26T16:20:36.385000+00:00","year":2022,"month":10,"season":13,"episode":15,"episode_label":"s13e15","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s3e15-cheap-portable-shareable-video-has/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1795,"context":" … This is, in my mind, in the same space as your office worker who accidentally becomes a critical piece of infrastructure because of an <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheet they made … ","reading_minutes":9},{"id":"5a32226e-5b05-4574-bd97-ecf14aed5470","slug":"s12e58-we-can-hallucinate-it-for-your-wholescale","subject":"s12e58: We can hallucinate it for your wholescale","title":"We can hallucinate it for your wholescale","publish_date":"2022-09-28T17:28:36.435663+00:00","year":2022,"month":9,"season":12,"episode":58,"episode_label":"s12e58","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s12e58-we-can-hallucinate-it-for-your-wholescale/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1627,"context":" … how many Colab notebooks are being used in production\n\nit is also very <mark>Excel</mark>-like in how code executes in cells\n\nIt's also not very Visual Basic … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"a6e2db28-e496-478e-a808-c625ca2044e6","slug":"s12e15-parc-thor-laser-akl-ix-aoas-cfpb","subject":"s12e15: PARC THOR LASER AKL-IX AOaS CFPB","title":"PARC THOR LASER AKL-IX AOaS CFPB","publish_date":"2022-06-06T17:25:24.851329+00:00","year":2022,"month":6,"season":12,"episode":15,"episode_label":"s12e15","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s12e15-parc-thor-laser-akl-ix-aoas-cfpb/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1331,"context":" … still something about spamming operations like society is some sort of spreadsheet and you're just grabbing the bottom-right handle in <mark>Excel</mark> and applying the same formula … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"83e2ba93-2c6c-4939-9853-34b1c3efb1cc","slug":"s11e46-independent-verification-and-validation","subject":"s11e46: Independent Verification and Validation","title":"Independent Verification and Validation","publish_date":"2022-05-03T23:50:33.413645+00:00","year":2022,"month":5,"season":11,"episode":46,"episode_label":"s11e46","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e46-independent-verification-and-validation/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1603,"context":" … what is there for the Manager Experience that's not \"more PowerPoint and <mark>Excel</mark> from more sources\"?\n\nI get that this is a hard problem because every metric … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"0f6b8031-28f0-4fc6-b39b-cc16c0079c0f","slug":"s11e33-okay-just-hear-me-out","subject":"s11e33: Okay, just hear me out","title":"Okay, just hear me out","publish_date":"2022-04-14T15:58:11.474632+00:00","year":2022,"month":4,"season":11,"episode":33,"episode_label":"s11e33","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e33-okay-just-hear-me-out/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1231,"context":" … Miro and <mark>Excel</mark>.\n\nBear with me, I might even draw some pictures.\n\nOkay, so: I like spreadsheets. They're fantastic. I also love drawing. If you are like … ","reading_minutes":6},{"id":"b909faba-d6d5-4ce9-ab2a-af5ed0c15e05","slug":"s11e07-three-and-a-half-short-pieces","subject":"s11e07: Three and a Half Short Pieces","title":"Three and a Half Short Pieces","publish_date":"2022-03-03T16:59:51.768985+00:00","year":2022,"month":3,"season":11,"episode":7,"episode_label":"s11e07","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e07-three-and-a-half-short-pieces/","is_premium":0,"word_count":720,"context":" … More <mark>Excel</mark>\n\nAfter I wrote about <mark>Excel</mark>, Twitter User Donkey Patrol (really, it could be worse\" pointed out:\n\nWhy is editing grids of data in a manual but … ","reading_minutes":4},{"id":"fc77def6-9c12-458e-813d-81f43264b1ca","slug":"s11e04-this-is-an-excel-system-i-know-this","subject":"s11e04: This is an Excel system, I know this","title":"This is an Excel system, I know this","publish_date":"2022-03-01T01:02:45.369227+00:00","year":2022,"month":3,"season":11,"episode":4,"episode_label":"s11e04","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s11e04-this-is-an-excel-system-i-know-this/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1659,"context":" … 1.0 Some things that caught my attention\n\n1.1 This is an <mark>Excel</mark> system\n[1]\n, I know this\n\n(I am, like, 90% certain I've used this … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"be44db11-3eff-4052-b3b7-b322881410e3","slug":"s09e29-new-clouds-spreadsheets-half-lives-snow","subject":"s09e29: New clouds; Spreadsheets; Half-lives; Snow Crashing chapters 17 and 18","title":"New clouds; Spreadsheets; Half-lives; Snow Crashing chapters 17 and 18","publish_date":"2021-05-17T22:18:35.868203+00:00","year":2021,"month":5,"season":9,"episode":29,"episode_label":"s09e29","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e29-new-clouds-spreadsheets-half-lives-snow/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2828,"context":" … Apart from <mark>Excel</mark> probably being one of the most-used programming IDEs in the world and an example of how people can just understand something like MapReduce\n[1 … ","reading_minutes":14},{"id":"2058db0f-11be-4935-93fe-309ee6d2ede7","slug":"s09e25-cats-writing-on-the-internet-the-moon","subject":"s09e25: Cats; Writing on the Internet; the Moon; OpenDoc and Componentized Software","title":"Cats; Writing on the Internet; the Moon; OpenDoc and Componentized Software","publish_date":"2021-05-05T22:28:22.662955+00:00","year":2021,"month":5,"season":9,"episode":25,"episode_label":"s09e25","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e25-cats-writing-on-the-internet-the-moon/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2594,"context":" … This is of course <mark>excellent</mark> timing because tomorrow I'm going to have my second Pfizer shot and my immune system has spent the last year not doing … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"07bf1b36-0178-4e62-bcdf-f53ef0ac4755","slug":"s09e23-no-but-really-where-do-you-start","subject":"s09e23: No, But Really, Where Do You Start?","title":"No, But Really, Where Do You Start?","publish_date":"2021-04-30T22:51:43.559819+00:00","year":2021,"month":4,"season":9,"episode":23,"episode_label":"s09e23","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e23-no-but-really-where-do-you-start/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2562,"context":" … download\nfor free as a PDF, or you can pay for as an <mark>Excel</mark> file, which is just another example of how broken everything is.\n\nSo as an … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"427e14e9-eab0-4b51-8d1e-cf192fad6a72","slug":"s09e16-irritated-about-content-moderation-a-few","subject":"s09e16: Irritated About Content Moderation; A Few Small Things","title":"Irritated About Content Moderation; A Few Small Things","publish_date":"2021-04-16T17:44:54.121093+00:00","year":2021,"month":4,"season":9,"episode":16,"episode_label":"s09e16","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e16-irritated-about-content-moderation-a-few/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3278,"context":" … Team Tito’s values are Integrity, <mark>Excellence</mark> and Delight. Apart from their broad definitions, integrity for us is\nminimising the potential for harm caused by what we build … ","reading_minutes":16},{"id":"51da49c1-3c2f-4967-afa4-fa538f42e4bd","slug":"s09e12-blockchain-buzz-buzz-buzz","subject":"s09e12: Blockchain buzz buzz buzz","title":"Blockchain buzz buzz buzz","publish_date":"2021-03-29T15:50:00+00:00","year":2021,"month":3,"season":9,"episode":12,"episode_label":"s09e12","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e12-blockchain-buzz-buzz-buzz/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1984,"context":" … knowing words like\nCOUNTIF\nwhich as everyone knows a proper word from Microsoft <mark>Excel</mark>.\n\nBut more seriously (ha) The NYT should do something like this:\n\nForm a product … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"c50ca6d8-a4ee-42a4-83b9-7d56c4ae1cc1","slug":"s09e10-why-not-put-an-rfid-on-everything-and","subject":"s09e10: Why Not Put An RFID On Everything, and Griefing","title":"Why Not Put An RFID On Everything, and Griefing","publish_date":"2021-03-21T23:18:14.705605+00:00","year":2021,"month":3,"season":9,"episode":10,"episode_label":"s09e10","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s09e10-why-not-put-an-rfid-on-everything-and/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1663,"context":" … I mentioned Therac-25 as one of the seminal cases of Software Killing People, but I realized that the paper finding that an <mark>Excel</mark> error “\nled to an … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"6213f6b3-f25d-457a-81b0-94fa454b642b","slug":"s08e14-they-write-software-that-kills-people-dont","subject":"s08e14: They Write Software That Kills People, Don't They?","title":"They Write Software That Kills People, Don't They?","publish_date":"2020-06-29T20:19:24.985000+00:00","year":2020,"month":6,"season":8,"episode":14,"episode_label":"s08e14","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s08e14-they-write-software-that-kills-people-dont/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2437,"context":" … You also get all the Visual Basic style applications and <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheets, or Google Forms lashed into Docs that are the desperate makings of employees and staff just … ","reading_minutes":12},{"id":"9a5f2693-d658-41db-ae46-70d1e5b080b0","slug":"s08e03-flint-and-kindling","subject":"s08e03: Flint and Kindling","title":"Flint and Kindling","publish_date":"2020-01-20T23:02:03.590000+00:00","year":2020,"month":1,"season":8,"episode":3,"episode_label":"s08e03","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s08e03-flint-and-kindling/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2609,"context":" … you’re doing the same equivalent as writing a thousand-row <mark>Excel</mark> specification, attempting to de-risk and game-out what would be involved in a “successful” conversation … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"fece2383-38bd-4d4b-b00e-0bf619688dfe","slug":"s07e25-little-things-snow-crashing-ch-14-part-1","subject":"s07e25: Little things; Snow Crashing Ch 14 part 1","title":"Little things; Snow Crashing Ch 14 part 1","publish_date":"2019-12-09T20:48:36.192000+00:00","year":2019,"month":12,"season":7,"episode":25,"episode_label":"s07e25","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07e25-little-things-snow-crashing-ch-14-part-1/","is_premium":0,"word_count":3185,"context":" … programming metaphor that hundreds of millions of people are familiar with (i.e. <mark>Excel</mark>) with what gatekeepers would call\nreal programming\n, i.e. javascript. This strikes me as … ","reading_minutes":16},{"id":"b6df7a0a-99c3-4e99-b9e6-ed0f8f3c9c2b","slug":"s07e17-snow-crashs-graveyard-daemons-and","subject":"s07e17: Snow Crash’s Graveyard Daemons and","title":"Snow Crash’s Graveyard Daemons and","publish_date":"2019-10-29T18:36:02.311000+00:00","year":2019,"month":10,"season":7,"episode":17,"episode_label":"s07e17","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07e17-snow-crashs-graveyard-daemons-and/","is_premium":0,"word_count":5010,"context":" … Hiro is all in with his Oculus or Vive or whatever, and can’t even open an <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheet without goggling in to an immersive 3D environment.\nAND … ","reading_minutes":25},{"id":"5b12e5ed-b5b2-4bdb-acc5-2adf86407046","slug":"s07e13-no-not-a-mid-life-crisis-snow-crashing","subject":"s07e13: No, not a mid-life crisis; Snow Crashing","title":"No, not a mid-life crisis; Snow Crashing","publish_date":"2019-10-14T20:37:42.514000+00:00","year":2019,"month":10,"season":7,"episode":13,"episode_label":"s07e13","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07e13-no-not-a-mid-life-crisis-snow-crashing/","is_premium":0,"word_count":4621,"context":" … All software is a trash fire\nVia Daniel Bilar, this thread on how “\n20% of genomics papers\n” have been affected by <mark>Excel</mark> converting gene names like SEPT2 to … ","reading_minutes":23},{"id":"9c50ad8f-2e20-4d7e-957c-b75a1aa75976","slug":"s07extra03-the-extra-bit","subject":"s07extra03: The extra bit","title":"The extra bit","publish_date":"2019-10-11T23:15:35.225000+00:00","year":2019,"month":10,"season":7,"episode":3,"episode_label":"s07extra03","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s07extra03-the-extra-bit/","is_premium":1,"word_count":2653,"context":" … Bare Bones Software is shipping a\nregex pattern explorer\ninto this version of BBEdit and I am reminded that Microsoft’s <mark>Excel</mark> (and other spreadsheets, I guess) are … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"a1e7a1a5-f08e-4748-ae97-4075d62c3dc7","slug":"s06e04-judge-social-networks-not-by-their-daus","subject":"s06e04: Judge social networks not by their DAUs but by the content of their CEO’s character","title":"Judge social networks not by their DAUs but by the content of their CEO’s character","publish_date":"2018-08-22T00:00:00+00:00","year":2018,"month":8,"season":6,"episode":4,"episode_label":"s06e04","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s06e04-judge-social-networks-not-by-their-daus/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1499,"context":" … It is a 33 page PDF (which feels like a shame, because it’s obviously an <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheet, and later on I find the link to the actual … ","reading_minutes":7},{"id":"defa8b8f-78a7-4bcd-aec4-505c7f88111d","slug":"s3e30-the-generative-surplus","subject":"s3e30: The Generative Surplus","title":"The Generative Surplus","publish_date":"2016-10-24T00:00:00+00:00","year":2016,"month":10,"season":3,"episode":30,"episode_label":"s03e30","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s3e30-the-generative-surplus/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1984,"context":" … it's OK to use <mark>Excel</mark> because <mark>Excel</mark> isn't stereotypically 'creative', it's just mindless calculation but holy shit we've seen very creative spreadsheets in our … ","reading_minutes":10},{"id":"4f31f724-3f9d-4250-990e-77beaa6cce3b","slug":"episode-one-hundred-and-fifty-one-not-that-way","subject":"Episode One Hundred and Fifty One: Not That Way; Against Empathy; Just Don't","title":"Not That Way; Against Empathy; Just Don't","publish_date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":8,"season":null,"episode":151,"episode_label":"episode 151","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-one-hundred-and-fifty-one-not-that-way/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1575,"context":" … the spacebar a bunch of times, of mis-named files, of mistakes in <mark>Excel</mark> spreadsheets.\n\n\n\n[1]\nHIPAA\n- HHS.gov\n\n[2]\nBaby Pictures at the Doctor's? Cute, Sure … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"7bd57263-ef3f-4cd1-ad96-20e22656315c","slug":"episode-eighty-one-board-level-algorithms-you","subject":"Episode Eighty One: Board-Level Algorithms; You Speak GIF, Right?; Intent; Odds","title":"Board-Level Algorithms; You Speak GIF, Right?; Intent; Odds","publish_date":"2014-05-15T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":5,"season":null,"episode":81,"episode_label":"episode 81","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-eighty-one-board-level-algorithms-you/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1580,"context":" … out Microsoft have incorporated a Deep Learning Wizard into the next version of <mark>Excel</mark> and all of your modeling spreadsheets are out of date.\n\nAbsent substantive information from … ","reading_minutes":8},{"id":"18296ed5-72db-4769-9f30-68b52221b2f2","slug":"episode-twenty-seven-shorts-code-as-law-the-real","subject":"Episode Twenty Seven: Shorts; Code as Law; The Real Revolution; The Flip","title":"Shorts; Code as Law; The Real Revolution; The Flip","publish_date":"2014-02-28T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":27,"episode_label":"episode 27","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-twenty-seven-shorts-code-as-law-the-real/","is_premium":0,"word_count":2560,"context":" … Realise that this is generalisation, of course, but manly productive things are done with computers - like business business business numbers, sorry, I mean Word <mark>Excel</mark> PowerPoint - and Microsoft … ","reading_minutes":13},{"id":"92208af1-e916-4117-a027-dace200fc958","slug":"episode-thirteen-the-auto-show-learning-to-code","subject":"Episode Thirteen: The Auto Show, Learning to Code and Niggling Thoughts","title":"The Auto Show, Learning to Code and Niggling Thoughts","publish_date":"2014-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","year":2014,"month":2,"season":null,"episode":13,"episode_label":"episode 13","canonical_url":"https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/episode-thirteen-the-auto-show-learning-to-code/","is_premium":0,"word_count":1594,"context":" … here's how you use Microsoft <mark>Excel</mark>, or Word.\n\nAnd that was where the shift was, I think.\n\nWhen Lottie Dexter talks on her Newsnight interview[4] about … ","reading_minutes":8}]}