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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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I have a spreadsheet that has been going for 20 years, across 2 companies, and hundreds of people.
Thousands and thousands of lines, going back like an ice core sample. Zooming out is wild.
"What's this layer?"
"Oh that's when Terry worked here"
Nowhere here is it implied that they were using it instead of a database. They could run into this issue whether or not they were properly using Excel for what it is for.
It's a well known phenomenon. The title of the article even alludes to it.
What about the title?
Read the article. IMHO scientists were having problems because they were using it for a task it is ill suited for. The kind of program that is designed for storing large amounts of data and preventing accidental corruption of it is a database.
I think scientists would use Excel more for finding out information with their data, not for storing it. You know like looking for trends and plotting graphs and whatnot.
I think they use it for both. They end up using it as a database because they're familiar with it from doing data analysis. I've also heard of much more egregious examples, like a school using a giant Excel spreadsheet to track the applications of potential students. Need to track up to three references for each student? Make three of each column related to a reference! It's a really gross way of storing denormalized data without any of the ACID properties databases guarantee.
I read this meme several times trying to figure out what is supposed to be funny about it... Then I realized it's from Friends and based on a "joke" from that show. No wonder it wasn't funny.
Edit: mmm yes, your downvotes only strengthen my resolve. Friends is shit and has always been shit. So unbelievably unfunny.
Who shit in your cheerios?