[UrMomReadsHN]

Oh boy, we don't need any more Excel abuse then there already is...

You wouldn't believe the kind of behemoth Excel monstrosities there are out there. Because when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail...

[throwawaymsft]

We want people to learn computational thinking, and then complain when their amateur creations aren't up to our standard? Let it be a gateway.

[UrMomReadsHN]

Except that their amateur creations end up as being used for really important stuff. With hugely disastrous results. Excel misuse seems to be rampant in the business world, from what I've seen from my customers.

Perhaps "teaching them Excel" will lead to a deep understanding. Perhaps "teaching them Excel" will just be like how I "learned" Excel back in high school- a teacher standings in front of the class just saying "press this button, now press this button."

Excel abuse was cited as a part of the reason JPMorgan lost 6 billion dollars.

I don't know...

[throwawaymsft]

I don't understand your argument. Let's say someone learns a proper programming language like Python, creates some spaghetti code (as any beginner will do), and that gets used by the business. How is that any different than a spreadsheet that does the same?

Excel's strength is that people are actually productive enough to start using and make something useful. Whether people make substandard houses with a hammer isn't really the tool's problem. Being too difficult to pick up is.

You might argue there is some quality bar that should be met before a creation is put into production, which is fine, but that's independent of the tool used to make it.