By Hiran de Silva When Oz du Soleil responded to Jon O’s comment under Mike Thomas’s post, he said something that sparked a deeper reflection: “Fortunately, the Excel...
Author - Hiran de Silva
By Hiran de Silva A few days ago, under a post by Mike Thomas referencing the “Excel is not a database” meme (with the famous Simpsons blackboard), a powerful comment...
By Hiran de Silva In the early days of computing—specifically during the 1980s—there was a technical limitation that shaped a generation of spreadsheet users in a rather...
By Hiran de Silva Most people who know me know that I am deeply committed to Excel, not as a hobby, not as a commodity skill, but as a vehicle for solving real business...
By Hiran de Silva “Excel Hell” is a phrase many of us know all too well. Senior managers feel the pain most acutely, but even at the ground level, workers often sense...
To celebrate Excel’s 40th anniversary, Bill Jelen posed the question: What non-business spreadsheet have you ever created? My answer is simple and unique: the Beatles...
By Hiran de Silva This article is inspired by a post from Mike Thomas on LinkedIn. We are in danger of falling into a lazy trap: projecting today’s technological...
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Excel’s Origin Story Brought Into Today – And Why the Opportunity Is Even Greater Tomorrow
By Hiran de Silva If you’ve followed my origin story, you might already be asking yourself a simple question. That penny-drop moment I experienced all those years...
By Hiran de Silva Just before Christmas in 1996, I took on a six-week temp assignment. The task was to assist a colleague with year-end reconciliations. The job was...
By Hiran de Silva There’s widespread misunderstanding of what pivot tables are actually for. The clue is in the name: pivot. A Little History By the early 1990s...