Excel, trust, addiction and the end of an experiment

Questions from the week ending 14 March 2021

Every week I read widely across a range of stuff that is loosely connected to the business of technology. I read to learn and to find questions (not answers). These were the things that most interested me this week...

MS Excel - the biggest and best coding community

Excel is the world’s largest coding ecosystem. Why does it dominate the market? Quality of software, network effects and the ability to translate across all organisations. https://www.notboring.co/p/excel-never-dies?r=8s18&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy By Packy McCormick in Not Boring

Its pretty fashionable to knock Excel. Think the Test and Trace scandal or the many startup pitches about replacing a tangle of unreliable spreadsheets. An obvious question for me: why replace the bespoke, sophisticated and high value spreadsheets that sit inside your system - why not integrate and empower them?

A simple way to change addictive habits

Interesting post in the Range report by David Epstein about addiction. Story about Vietnam veterans coming home is fascinating. How can we apply this basic insight? https://davidepstein.com/the-fast-way-to-change-a-habit/

The end of trust in authority

This is a good analysis of how Trump, Brexit and the rest happened - loss of belief in authority. Sounds very like the febrile atmosphere when the Protestant Reformation started (that might just be because I am reading a book about it just now). I don’t agree that the Internet (or the printing press) are the whole reason but part of the trigger. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-prophet-of-the-trump-era-255?r=8s18&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy

By far the most interesting question (for everything) is what happens next? COVID has been characterised by a media, political and popular consensus based on trust for “the science.” Does this mean we all now trust authority again or will there be a backlash?

Sad to see the end of Indie.vc

The end of Indie.vc - how an experiment failed. Important story because we need to have a variety of funding models to build good businesses and a successful economy. The traditional linear VC model of seed, series A etc leading to a Unicorn is a myth. May be suitable for a small number of entrepreneurs but mostly irrelevant and unhelpful outside of the USA https://medium.com/@bryce/the-end-of-indie-6e1b92d90b09

So what real alternatives do we need to build an ecosystem for growth and innovation?

That’s all from me this week. What are the questions you are asking this week...