Narrated Timeline of Two Inventions, One Blind Spot
Act I: The Absurd Comfort of the Familiar
This is the story of an invention’s journey—from obscurity to ubiquity—and how, curiously, in both the past and present, something very simple remains hidden from plain view. We begin not with technology, but with transport.
In the 1800s, the horse-drawn carriage was the pinnacle of personal mobility. Rich families owned them. Entire ecosystems revolved around them: horses, stables, hay suppliers, blacksmiths, and groomsmen. The Kaisers and aristocrats adored their steeds.
Then came Carl Benz and the internal combustion engine—a revolution in waiting. But revolutions make people nervous. The German Kaiser, fond of horses, was concerned. What would happen to the grooms? The blacksmiths? The horses themselves?
Mrs. Benz (not Mercedes—Mercedes was someone else in the family) famously helped push the motor car into public imagination. Still, the resistance persisted.
People did what humans often do when confronted with new paradigms: they modified the old instead of adopting the new.
The Birth of the Horse-Drawn Motor Car
In this reality, rather than detach the horses, some decided to keep them. They simply hitched their beloved animals to the new motorized contraptions. The horses did the pulling. The engine just… sat there hidden from view. Perhaps one day, they thought, they’d figure it out – if they knew it was there!
The first motor cars even looked like carriages—no steering wheels, just reins and tillers. Form reassured those uncomfortable with function.
And so, in this story, a parallel world developed:
- Enthusiasts who embraced the engine.
- Traditionalists who clung to horses—though their carriages now had pneumatic tires and more comfortable suspensions.
The modernizing faction moved quickly: the Bugatti crowd, the Model T, the open road, the motorways. While others engineered bizarre contraptions: mechanical legs for horses to help them keep up with engines. To fake the semblance of mechanisation.
This only led to exhausted horses, unpredictable breakdowns, and a deeply ironic situation: the very thing that could simplify life was now obscured by noise, resistance, and nostalgia.
The Arrival of Robotic Horses
Eventually, the industry that serves the needs of the traditionalists innovated a new “solution”—robotic horses. Stainless steel, high-performing, and capable of running at engine-level speeds. These could be attached to Rolls-Royces and Jaguar E-Types to maintain the visual legacy of horse-drawn dignity.
Now, both groups drove what appeared to be modern cars. Some had engines under the hood, used efficiently. Others had engines… but chose not to start them.
The real tragedy? Many never knew the engine was there. Marketing, social status, and comfort kept them locked in an illusion. The Horse-Drawn Motor Car – a Mercedes, no less.
Act II: The Parallel World of Excel
This alternative dystopian world of transport has an uncanny parallel in the world of digital productivity—specifically, in the evolution of Excel.
Let’s rewind.
Centuries ago, we documented information by carving into rock, papyrus, and later paper. By the 20th century, we used typewriters, ink, and carbon copies. Passing messages by hand or machine needed a physical medium. Always.
Then came VisiCalc, SuperCalc, and Multiplan—the first “electronic spreadsheets.” They mimicked the layout of A3 paper, where analysts once folded large sheets to fit into filing cabinets. The term spreadsheet literally came from the act of “spreading” the A3 sheet to read it from its A4 folded state.
Excel adopted this paradigm and retained its look. It was a digital replica of a familiar object. A large sheet of paper. Comforting. Manual. Intuitive. Just like the horse-drawn motor car.
But then—another revolution.
In the 1990s, with the rise of networking, Windows, and the client-server architecture, came a paradigm shift. Businesses embraced the idea of separating data from applications, storing it centrally, and building collaborative processes. Massive productivity ensued in all industries, globally.
This was the birth of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Microsoft Office did not stand still. It was not far behind in this revolution.
Suddenly, Excel could do something extraordinary. It could connect to central databases using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). The spreadsheet became an interface—not a container. It no longer needed to be passed around like ‘large sheets of paper’. It simply connected – to enable data to flow seamlessly.
But Again, Two Worlds Emerged
Just like in the motor car story, two Excel cultures arose:
- Power users and professional consultants who discovered this engine and used it to build enterprise-grade systems.
- Popular users, many new to Excel, who still saw it as nothing more than a big piece of digital paper.
These popular mainstream users became the majority—empowered by personal laptops, and YouTube tutorials. The social media era gave rise to Excel influencers who catered to this growing population. But most had never discovered, or understood, the engine under the hood.
So once again, we see the same pattern:
- The old paradigm is digitally replicated.
- New mechanical add-ons are introduced—like Power Query, LAMBDA, dynamic arrays – the Excel equivalent of mechanical legs for the horses.
- The problems multiply. Collaboration is still manual and reliant on sending and receiving a physical medium – a spreadsheet. Processes break at scale. Excel hell is born.
- A new solution is heavily marketed: replace Excel altogether. Enter the robotic horses of the FP&A Tools industry.
And what do these vendors say?
“Excel is the problem. It’s chaotic. It can’t scale. Let us replace it.”
Just like robotic horse makers selling salvation to those who never knew how to start the engine.
Act III: The Simple Truth Hidden in Plain Sight
And yet, the engine is still there. In fact, it always has been.
Professional Excel developers—those who’ve been quietly building enterprise-grade, multi-user, cloud-connected systems—have known this for decades. They’ve leveraged the database connections, triggered processes, and automated data flows. No need for complex add-ons. No need to abandon Excel.
But very few know this. And fewer still teach it.
Because the discussion is dominated by social media influencers focused on individual productivity, not enterprise transformation. Because the industry benefits from hiding the engine—selling robotic horses is more profitable. Promoting the mechanical legs gets plenty of ‘likes and subscribes’.
So here we are.
Most people still send spreadsheets back and forth. They build ever-more complex formulas. They chase every new feature hoping it solves collaboration. They’ve been sold mechanical legs and shiny robots. But the one thing they haven’t done… is turn the key.
Epilogue: Finding the Key
This story isn’t just about transport or spreadsheets. It’s about how revolutions are buried under comfort, tradition, and noise.
The engine is there. Its in your Excel.
You don’t need to abandon it. You don’t need a new tool. You don’t need robotic horses.
You just need to look under the hood.
And start the car.
But do you know how?
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