Story time: I was on a trip about 15 years back, doing some Excel work on a ferry ride - your basic pseudo-database work that is so common. I started talking with the guy sitting next to me and after a while he commented on what I was doing, “You know, that’s really not what I designed that for…” (continued)

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I took a long pause and asked him to clarify. “That’s not what I meant Excel to be used for when I designed it,” he said. It was Jabe Blumenthal - the first Program Manager at MSFT and the original designer of Excel. He was amazing and such fun to talk to. But, man, I could probably only name five people I’d be more starstruck to meet - and they all have Nobel Prizes.

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WOWW

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Great share! Yes tell us what he said it was designed for

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I’m not going to do justice to his exact sentiment. I understood he originally designed it for modeling, financial analysis, bookkeeping, accounting. It wasn’t designed to be a database substitute (e.g. phone directories), Gantt chart / management, etc. Basically, if there is another purpose built MSFT product that does it (Access, Project) — the original intention for Excel wasn’t to do that. He certainly recognized the multitool nature of Excel—and applauded some of then new and creative uses—but was essentially saying just because you can use pliers to turn in a screw, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use screwdriver.

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Awww I love that! Lol what a cool story

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Great story. Wonder how the conversation would have gone if you were using Google Sheets 😅

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Or worse, Numbers!

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