This post resonates with me. But mostly because we've come to equate tools with data. And that "tool = data" mindset (in my view) is the reason for having this problem to solve in the first place.
If the data for a particular need of mine was in a standardized format, it wouldn't matter which tool I used as I could switch at any point in time.
The post mentions Excel as the go-to tool. What I would have liked the author to be able to say instead is - "use spreadsheet-data as the first data-container for the data needed". If a better data-format, more specialized for my need exist, migrate to that instead. The tool to interact with that data should be the secondary choice. Something that could be reevaluated at a later time if needed, without loosing past data due to lock-in effects.
Sometimes you don't realize there's a problem until you try doing it a different way. If you always wait until there's a problem, you're likely to get stuck doing things the hard way. There's nothing wrong with taking the occasional moment to see what new tools are out there, if anything to simply be a bit more efficient. If you're looking for new tools all the time to procrastinate, or simply always hoping something will do the heavy lifting for you then that's another story.
If the data for a particular need of mine was in a standardized format, it wouldn't matter which tool I used as I could switch at any point in time.
The post mentions Excel as the go-to tool. What I would have liked the author to be able to say instead is - "use spreadsheet-data as the first data-container for the data needed". If a better data-format, more specialized for my need exist, migrate to that instead. The tool to interact with that data should be the secondary choice. Something that could be reevaluated at a later time if needed, without loosing past data due to lock-in effects.