People aren't learning excel because Universities are part of some Microsoft conspiracy. They are learning it themselves, or from each other.
My mother self-learnt excel, first as a to-do list, then a money tracker, then she learned some simple equations to keep track of weekly spending.
How in R would someone do that? With a nice graphical view? I agree Excel has many many issues, but people use it because, in my experience, it super easy to use and in particular let's you easily mix data and code.
People are also learning excel because that's the only way to program in a big company without going through "official IT", which won't listen to what you have to say if you're not a $100 000 project they can offload to a third-party.
> People aren't learning excel because Universities are part of some Microsoft conspiracy. They are learning it themselves, or from each other.
At least in germany children are often forced to learn excel in school because the official curriculum includes "office software" which is an euphemism for "microsoft product training". This has certainly not developed from necessity. Even someone who thinks school should only be a preperation for the job market would agree that employees who are able to help themselves are better than ones who know how to use a specific version of Excel.
I'm really not against teaching spreadsheat software since it's a really useful tool. I just don't like that it's thought very microsoft specific and in depth. Students could benefit way more from some basic computer (science) literacy.
My mother self-learnt excel, first as a to-do list, then a money tracker, then she learned some simple equations to keep track of weekly spending.
How in R would someone do that? With a nice graphical view? I agree Excel has many many issues, but people use it because, in my experience, it super easy to use and in particular let's you easily mix data and code.