How a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet From Hell Slowed Williams' F1 Cars For Years (www.thedrive.com)
from boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 05:32
https://lemmy.world/post/13779795

#technology

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tedu on 01 Apr 2024 06:27 next collapse

Was this article sponsored by Oracle?

jqubed@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 15:27 collapse

Oracle sponsors enough sports like this, the least they can do is offer a discounted/free ERP and then turn it around for their marketing use cases

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 2024 16:44 collapse

Free and Oracle? What is today, April Fools Day?

jqubed@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 16:49 collapse

Oh, just for the teams they sponsor. Don’t worry, it still needs to benefit them.

ladicius@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 06:38 next collapse

Pretty sure someone or even several people had that problem pointed out for years - and the management didn’t care for those “negativlings” and ignored the problem.

The rot starts at the top.

IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social on 01 Apr 2024 09:00 collapse

The team was just heavily under funded when it was still managed by the Williams family. There was no money to change anything. Former drivers that have visited the factory have all told that it felt like they had traveled back in time, everything is outdated at the Williams factory. They were stuck in a downward spiral. They couldn’t build a fast car to get into the points because of the outdated factory, which meant they didn’t get a lot of prize money and also couldn’t attract enough sponsorship money. Thus they didn’t have the money to improve the car for the next season. When the team was sold to an investor group they finally got enough funds to turn this sinking ship around.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 06:46 next collapse

Pretty much all data heavy organisations use excel VERY heavily. And when nobody understands the model within them any more, they need retiring and are usually replaced with… Excel! This time with even more tabs and columns. To replace these things with computer models risks repeating the same problem the original sheet has: bus factors and complexities are hard, more so even in python/r than excel sadly. Maybe one day something will trump it, but that day is not today

CptEnder@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 06:59 next collapse

Naw other F1 teams just pay for custom data management software.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 08:14 collapse

Supply chain management software exists. Do they meet f1 demands? Doubtful, but this is why you partner with a software company. They add more, you pay less, and give them some good sponsorship

themeatbridge@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 13:59 collapse

Do they meet f1 demands?

If the alternative is a spreadsheet that gets updated manually, literally anything would be an improvement.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:51 collapse

Markdown file on a shared windows drive enters the chat

Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 07:42 next collapse

SQL would like a little chat with you.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 08:11 collapse

I do this for a living. I’ve spent basically my whole career (15 years full time professional at this stage) basically trying to kill excel. You can’t, or at least I can’t. You can add processes to it, you can programmatically read/write from it, but when it comes down to ditching it: every stakeholder is invested in excel. No other piece of office has the staying power that excel has, it will outlast us all

woelkchen@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 10:42 next collapse

So Excel=cockroach?

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 12:04 collapse

I suspect slightly more useful than a cockroach. Believe it or not, it’s actually good at what it does. That’s why it’s still here. And also why I’m in a job, as there are plenty of things it shouldn’t be doing too

0x0@programming.dev on 01 Apr 2024 10:52 next collapse

Because the tech-illiterate people who have authority only know “productivity” tools and couldn’t care less about the opinions of the people who actually know what they’re doing.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 12:05 next collapse

Those at the top are often more tech literate than I give them credit for. I suspect it is actually those armies of analysts that are holding it back

0x0@programming.dev on 01 Apr 2024 13:36 next collapse

The Peter principle says otherwise, but analysts are a factor for sure.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:50 collapse

I’ve witnessed the dilbert principle more

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 16:25 collapse

Yeah, I have access to database tools to do my job, but I don’t know how to use those tools so I use Excel to do shit it really isn’t optimized to do.

I am 100% part of the problem when I create a spreadsheet with formulas cross correlating data from 41000 entries, 9000 entries, and 1200 entries.

dogslayeggs@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 16:17 collapse

I disagree. It’s way more that they aren’t hiring the right people to do the job. I’ve been asked to do some analysis, but the only tool I know how to use is Excel so that’s what I use to answer the mail. If I had access to a database person to help me build a better tool I’d be happy to not use Excel. But I don’t so I do what I can to do my job.

jkrtn@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 2024 12:20 collapse

It’s surely a nightmare for long term usage but is there a software that can beat the functional reactive sort of auto updates when using spreadsheets with a few thousand rows of data? I’d have to actually use my brain to do the same thing as a pivot table in an array programming language.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:49 collapse

Any sort of actual database will let you do it. SQL based the obvious answer, but they are all way harder to use than they should be. SQLite never got anything as good as excel sadly, and parquet still lacks a decent windows client. The WYSIWYG of excel really is so intuitive, nothing I know matches it

Miaou@jlai.lu on 01 Apr 2024 09:30 next collapse

Did you even read the article?

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 09:40 collapse

Yup. And extra extra, excel can be beaten for specific examples with lots of extra tooling. But you know what that tooling will also do? Generate excel reports

daddy32@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 11:37 next collapse

hmm generating static excel reports doesn’t sound bad, as long as these are used just as output format - basically a familiar GUI.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 12:07 collapse

Yeah, it is a good data dense gui, and is ubiquitous. But now it does python too! What a dreadful decision that was

Bonehead@kbin.social on 01 Apr 2024 12:10 collapse

Generating a report using Excel as a format is a lot different from using Excel as a database.

jaybone@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 13:13 next collapse

You could use a database, and SQL. Or is that crazy talk?

herrvogel@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:38 collapse

Yes. Your boss needs to be able to double click on an email attachment otherwise it’s like you never even did anything.

RagingRobot@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:07 collapse

But in a language like Python there are established patterns for dealing with complexity unlike Excel lol

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:51 collapse

How do the handle version control? I’m yet to actually meet it in the wild

RagingRobot@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 18:32 collapse

Version control for any kind of code can be done with git if that’s what you are asking. There are other systems available too but that’s the standard for most things now.

Olap@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 21:13 collapse

Python in excel is in git?? Better than I thought

JoMomma@lemm.ee on 01 Apr 2024 07:18 next collapse

They should have used an Access database

NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 09:15 collapse

Replacing a working excel “solution” with access is like replacing an old rickety hammer with a bigger old rickety hammer.

JoMomma@lemm.ee on 01 Apr 2024 17:32 collapse

That cannot be true, Access is an enterprise class solution that can handle any workload and the performance is out of this world

NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2024 00:31 collapse

Access is an enterprise class solution

Don’t mix it up with Acetone

JoMomma@lemm.ee on 02 Apr 2024 02:16 collapse

Huffing is bad for your health

ggnoredo@lemm.ee on 01 Apr 2024 10:57 next collapse

clear example of why people should only work on their “single” proficiency. Excel? really?

MonkderDritte@feddit.de on 01 Apr 2024 13:16 next collapse

Pretty sure every professional CAD software has interfaces for external parts, which can then trigger an analysis in accounting for parts not on storage.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 2024 16:43 next collapse

This doesn’t sound like an Excel problem it sounds like a management/software upkeep/bus factor problem.

I’m going to be the odd man out and say that Excel isn’t even that bad: I use it a lot for RPG simulations and engineering simulations, and not just because CSV is normalized. It can be part of the tech stack, but not in a mission critical way. There’s really no tool like it especially if you are doing simulations.

Aleric@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 17:51 collapse

100%, excel is great for spreadsheets and garbage as a database, yet so many people keep using it as a database. I’m currently pushing for my department to transition their many “excel databases” to proper databases and I’m getting mass surprised Pikachu face because no one else knows they’re not the same.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 01 Apr 2024 18:07 next collapse

Well if you’re trying to use Excel as a database, get them behind SQL Server or something. Hell, Access is a step up.

Using Excel outside of simulation proofs is not a wise business decision, because it means (going off my experience) institutional knowledge

Aleric@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 18:43 collapse

Indeed, I’m pushing for SQL but work in a field that sees Excel as a huge improvement over past practices. They’re about one step removed from writing on toilet paper.

My original career was in a much more data intensive field, so I’ve become “that guy” regarding proper data storage and hygiene. Case in point: we sit directly next to IT. Every time we talk about data collection, I’ll get up on my SQL soap box and one of the IT folks will let out a comical groan.

expr@programming.dev on 02 Apr 2024 01:49 collapse

If you’re working with csv data, www.visidata.org >>>>> excel (assuming you’re comfortable with terminal UIs, anyway). You can very rapidly slice and dice data and for formulas and such, you can just write Python.

Tronn4@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 16:58 next collapse

I use Minecraft developed in-game built computers for all my parts inventory needs

rachthegoldberg@lemmy.world on 01 Apr 2024 21:25 collapse

excel 4 lyfe