Circles of Passage
Posted by Kris on October 2nd, 2007
I wrote a spreadsheet earlier this year for the fire modeling program that I use daily. Why? In an effort to help everyone write faster input files by hand without calculating values, then looking up the value on a table, then dividing the blah blah, and back and forth and so on. Some students came up with very tedious ways of “automating” this process by using Goal Seek in Excel and just making the process even more inefficient, hence the reason I made the spreadsheet tool - for myself and the world to use.
My point is, tonight it was returning an incorrect value for one of its calculations. Hmm, surely I must have made an error somewhere. But it only happened for this very specific number. Hmm. The student teaching aide in the class starts going off on how everyone should be using a real tool like the classic one programmed by a Doctorate, which is still available online. His tool is great. Mine has a bit more functionality. Isn’t that where growth comes in?
Oh technology; it will cripple you if you let it.
Moving on, I get to thinking of the tools that I use everyday and who made them (someone with the same progressive mindset) and who broke them (the users) and how they are better than ever now (the result of that community effort and collaboration) and it just keeps going.
Turns out, after extensive testing, that I actually found an Excel bug (2003 on Windows, 2004 for Mac are the ones I have tested thus far) with the MATCH function. Reproducible and all. Aha.
Sure, I am an undergraduate that made a workable spreadsheet. Apparently I was clouding minds and killing student’s brain cells when this bug was uncovered earlier. What a crazy perspective. All I ask is that in your environment, wherever that may be, please don’t halt and impede progress and growth because you don’t agree with something or think someone is under-qualified to make it, chances are, you might not be as qualified as you think, having that mindset and all. Thankfully, I feel as if that notion is flying out the door day by day with progress, but it is unfortunate that I do my work with a few (and sure you do too) people who revel in the sour taste of regression.
Tell me, what is worse? A version 0.01 (beta beta) that has some odd glitch in it, or version zero that doesn’t exist and doesn’t contribute to anyone? You could apply this concept to a tiny spreadsheet program or all the way up to some idea that you have had in the back of your head for 5 years.
All I know is that now, I am excited to move this spreadsheet tool to another robust platform and make it even better and more functional now. No thanks to the folks impeding it, but thanks to the students (users) for breaking it and causing progress.
Think.
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