By Hiran de Silva As Excel approaches its 40th anniversary, the noise on social media is deafening. Posts celebrating “Excel’s growth” tend to measure progress in the...
Archive - August 2025
By Hiran de Silva Paul Barnhurst recently posted about Excel’s historical expansion in terms of the number of built-in functions. A nice factoid perhaps, but as a...
Bu Hiran de Silva Ask anyone what they do in Excel regularly — daily, weekly, monthly — and you’ll hear familiar tasks: updating reports, reconciling accounts, preparing...
By Hiran de Silva When we talk about “automation” in Excel, what do we really mean? Most of the time, what’s meant is simply this: take a process that used to be...
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The Caveats They Don’t Tell You: Copilot, Excel, and the Rules That “Don’t Need Saying”
By Hiran de Silva There’s a LinkedIn post doing the rounds by Dimple Saini, a chartered accountant promoting Copilot. She’s excited about it — who wouldn’t be? It’s the...
As Excel turns 40, I find myself asking: what exactly are we celebrating? For many, the anniversary is framed around cosmetic features—new formulas, shortcuts, or tricks...
In my last article I drew a line between two worlds of Excel: The private car park — where you can drive any way you like, in circles, for fun, without consequences. The...
By Hiran de Silva Financial modelling is a term that has become fashionable, almost fetishised, in finance, consulting, and training circles. But here’s the hard truth:...
By Hiran de Silva Paul Barnhurst recently shared a history of Excel’s milestones over its 40 years. Interesting, yes — but also telling in what it left out. No mention...
By Hiran de Silva This year Excel turns 40. Four decades on, it’s time to reflect on the outcome of one of the most powerful business tools ever invented. First, Excel...