By Hiran de Silva
I saw Paul Barnhurst’s recent post on LinkedIn on the history of Excel.
Interesting—well told—but it missed something fundamental.
Imagine the history of the motor car being written like this:
- In the early days, octagonal wheels became popular.
- Later, square wheels caught on—people were excited by their novelty.
- Then came triangular wheels, spiked wheels, and all kinds of cosmetic variations.
The commentators go into great detail on these trends.
But they never once mention the moment round wheels were introduced—the very thing that made the motor car practical.
That’s where we are with Excel’s story.
The real breakthrough—the round wheels—was Excel’s ability to connect with other systems and databases. That’s what turned it from a desktop toy into a genuine enterprise tool.
Yet most accounts of Excel’s “evolution” skip over that completely. Some people are even surprised to learn it exists. Others dismiss it as obsolete.
But here’s the truth: the round wheels are still here, and they’re still the only way to make Excel a smooth ride at scale.
Wouldn’t this be the perfect moment to put those wheels back on?
To let people feel the difference between bouncing around on square wheels and gliding forward on round ones?
That’s the opportunity right now. For individual users. For teams. For entire industries.
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