What other ways are we not really appreciating the power of the spreadsheet model? https://twitter.com/galtenberg/status/1285701173476044801

I’m really with you on the being able to put things somewhere. I’ve heard spreadsheets referred to as digital duck tape, and I think that metaphor carries a lot of power: • some usages are formal, but most are ad hoc • you can do a shockingly big variety of things with it (cf deep learning models built with excel and prom dresses made with duck tape) • You can put it anywhere

you start with data by default instead of some abstraction like a class or function

exactly - it’s pure data, you declare the type on the go when you use it. also, it’s understandable and usable by everyone, since visual 2D relations are easy

my infatuation with spreadsheets is rooted in a respect for the original relational-model of data, where all data is tuples and tables. Very flexible and general-purpose model that should be used more. Spreadsheets are good since they’re the most natural way of working directly with relational-style data.

"Database for free" is def a benefit

high-level functions for common concerns: date math, summarizing columns, financial functions like IRR and NPV, etc.