How Electronic Spreadsheets Changed the World

  • Authors:

  • Rick Hesse;Deborah Hesse Scerno

  • Affiliations:

  • Graziadio School of Business and Management, Pepperdine University, Ventura, California 93003;Parsons, Jacksonville, Florida 32207

  • Venue:
  • Interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In How the Irish Saved Civilization, Tom Cahill contended that during the dark ages the monks were responsible not only for writing and preserving the Bible but for other great works, including mathematics texts [Cahill, T. 1995. How the Irish Saved Civilization: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. Doubleday, New York]. In much the same way, we have seen that electronic spreadsheets have changed (although perhaps not saved) our world in the last 25 years. The first author, who has over 40 years of experience in teaching quantitative analysis (management science, operations research, decision sciences, and statistics) at eight US universities, has been using spreadsheets for over 20 years. The second author, with almost 15 years of spreadsheet experience, witnessed the exponential growth of personal computers and their associated programs starting in her college days in the mid-1980s. While she majored in computer science, the emphasis was on programming. However, many who were in school at that time realized that the growth area would be in programs, not in programming; therefore, they spent their time using Mac computers and learning word processing and spreadsheets. When the second author returned to school for her master's in science, she observed a love/hate relationship with spreadsheets in the multiple fields of science in which she worked. In this paper, we offer our personal perspective on this ubiquitous and useful tool that has unquestionably changed the world.