Excel

or Pride Goeth Before the Fall

I had a class on Excel earlier in the week that I was not looking forward to. Excel, for those of you who might not know, is a spread sheet program that is both powerful and tedious at the same time. This was an intro class, so I thought I might be really bored as they spent all day teaching us to put data into the program. However, I was pleasantly surprised as the instructor was able to make it interesting and tailor the material to the different background levels of our class. During the morning session, I thought I was asking very good clarification questions and clearly summarizing the points that the teacher was making. It was a good feeling and I was rather pleased with myself.

That was until after lunch. Then I couldn't remember the details of what I had “learned” in the morning . The instructor seemed to be going faster and I was lost more often. Maybe the easiness of the morning had been replaced with after lunch lethargy. Or maybe I had become a prime example of the saying, “Pride goeth before the fall.”

In the end, I learned that in Excel functions need parentheses, but formulas do not and the world is full of very capable people with different abilities including me.