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The spreadsheet memes we can all relate to

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The spreadsheet memes we can all relate to

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Rachael Ainsworth

Rachael Ainsworth

SSI fellow

Posted on 8 November 2021

Estimated read time: 2 min
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The spreadsheet memes we can all relate to

Posted by j.laird on 8 November 2021 - 2:00pm

By Rachael Ainsworth, Research Software Community Manager, Software Sustainability Institute. Twitter: @rachaelevelyn.

This blog post is published as part of the Research Software Camp: Beyond the Spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets are ubiquitous across academia and industry. Although mistakes can have real world consequences from genomics to austerity, sometimes you just have to laugh at the day-to-day trials and tribulations of trying to get spreadsheets to just. work. I have compiled below a selection of spreadsheet memes from around the internet, most of which of course relate to date formatting errors.

Spreadsheets in popular memes

Another day another stupid Excel chart pic.twitter.com/NaNLHTZGSW

— Planet Dave (@_daviant) April 22, 2020

excel ✅✅✅

google sheets 🚩🚩🚩

— excelhumor.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) October 13, 2021

pic.twitter.com/1cwgSQ054X

— excelhumor.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) August 4, 2021

have these Highly Specific Memes for all my fellow spreadsheet jockeys out there pic.twitter.com/u6qns6T6dK

— 𓅇 Chase J 𓅊 (@ChaseJxyz) March 9, 2020 Meme based on Phoebe and Joey from Friends: ME VS EXCEL ASSUMING NUMBER IS A DATESource: Starecat

More on spreadsheets turning entries into dates 

excel: is that a date?

me: 57.39 is very much not a date

excel: strong date vibes to me

me: h-how

excel: fixed it

me: 57/39/2020?

excel: you’re welcome

— slate (@PleaseBeGneiss) November 17, 2020

Person 1: The glass is 1/2 full

Person 2: The glass is 1/2 empty

Excel: The glass is the 1st of February

— Andrew R (@ExcelPope) October 16, 2021


Other common spreadsheet experiences

cartoon showing an angel and demon on either side of a computer-user. The angel is encouraging them to avoid spreadsheets and use real code while the devil is encouraging spreadsheetsSource: XKCD

 

When you accidentally break a link in Excel pic.twitter.com/6V51zs14Om

— excelhumor.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) April 4, 2021

Me trying to trace down the reason for the # N/A in cell B2 pic.twitter.com/BgQ8F9EWbK

— excelhumor.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) November 8, 2019

pic.twitter.com/KoV37MzK91

— excelhumor.xlsx (@ExcelHumor) October 6, 2021 Graph showing math skill vs stage of life. Math skill increases through school and college stages then drops at job stage as they use spreadsheetsSource: Pearls of Raw Nerdism

 

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