Note that a podcast version of this (more or less) is also available in Tim Harford's Cautionary Tales series under the title "Wrong Tools Cost Lives".
Because they are by far and away the best tooling they have readily available to them.
That's not a failing of the users - that's the failing of "IT" to provide tooling thats better suited and also more accessible. I'm sure many are quick to offer up a bunch of excuses or justifications for why that is - you know what? It's still a failing.
Want people to stop stuffing everything into spreadsheets? Provide them better alternatives! I'm so sick of reading the majority of technology press or sites like this one with their overt navel gazing, focusing on tech for the sake of technology. Look at the man years jettisoned into the ether as everyone rushes off chasing after the latest trending tooling or language instead of using "boring" tooling to get actual work done.
Where's the discussion about how this technology is actual moving society forward? It's easy to take pot shots and call people stupid for abusing spreadsheets - I would argue the pot shots shouldn't be lobbed at the spreadsheet users but the whole "computer science" discipline that is anything but disciplined or scientific in it's approach.
The more I see crap like this bandied about, even though I am loathe to see yet more government regulation maybe there is serious considerations that need to be made towards equating software development more along the lines of professional engineering. After all the whole premise of this bombastic piece is that lives were lost. Maybe if technologists had a bit more rigor and customer focus instead of chasing technology for technologies sake stuff like this wouldn't be so prevalent?
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Because they are by far and away the best tooling they have readily available to them.
That's not a failing of the users - that's the failing of "IT" to provide tooling thats better suited and also more accessible. I'm sure many are quick to offer up a bunch of excuses or justifications for why that is - you know what? It's still a failing.
Want people to stop stuffing everything into spreadsheets? Provide them better alternatives! I'm so sick of reading the majority of technology press or sites like this one with their overt navel gazing, focusing on tech for the sake of technology. Look at the man years jettisoned into the ether as everyone rushes off chasing after the latest trending tooling or language instead of using "boring" tooling to get actual work done.
Where's the discussion about how this technology is actual moving society forward? It's easy to take pot shots and call people stupid for abusing spreadsheets - I would argue the pot shots shouldn't be lobbed at the spreadsheet users but the whole "computer science" discipline that is anything but disciplined or scientific in it's approach.
The more I see crap like this bandied about, even though I am loathe to see yet more government regulation maybe there is serious considerations that need to be made towards equating software development more along the lines of professional engineering. After all the whole premise of this bombastic piece is that lives were lost. Maybe if technologists had a bit more rigor and customer focus instead of chasing technology for technologies sake stuff like this wouldn't be so prevalent?