Excel

The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
- Highlight Loc. 3463-67  | Added on Friday, November 04, 2011, 08:19 PM

In the not too distant past, say the precomputer days, projections remained vague and qualitative, one had to make a mental effort to keep track of them, and it was a strain to push scenarios into the future. It took pencils, erasers, reams of paper, and huge wastebaskets to engage in the activity. Add to that an accountant’s love for tedious, slow work. The activity of projecting, in short, was effortful, undesirable, and marred with self-doubt. But things changed with the intrusion of the spreadsheet. When you put an Excel spreadsheet into computer-literate hands you get a “sales projection” effortlessly extending ad infinitum!