How important are Excel forum's?

[Aladin Akyurek]

Here you are:

1.The one where I referred to MrExcel threads is here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2103;
Its predecessor was Spreadsheet as a relational database engine

2. An older one, with no references to MrExcel is [1211.6781] User Defined Spreadsheet Functions in Excel

3. And this one is still in preparation: [1307.7261] The Power of Spreadsheet Computations


J.Ty.

I don't have access to ACM in order to get the first one.

 

[J.Ty.]

Dear Aladin,

Here it is from my Web page: Spreadsheet as a relational database engine

J.Ty.

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

Dear Aladin,

Here it is from my Web page: Spreadsheet as a relational database engine

J.Ty.

Thanks...

 

[taurean]

Here's an interesting story:
http://www.snlabetterway.com/socrates-secret-to-success/#.VFh90WcdTpI
One should be willing to learn and it applies to Excel learning like other things that we learn in life.

The importance of forums really can't be stated or summed up in couple of statements but if you are DIY person and willing to spend some time then forums are really good source for learning and that does not limit to Excel. It is here you see the experts in the field guiding newbs for free and also solutions to real world problems. But one needs to be focused about what he is seeking otherwise one could get confused and disoriented very quickly due to sheer enormity of what web stores.

The seekers are very less. Rest will say "ooh, could you show that magic again please?" and when they say that then mostly you can be sure that they are more interested in "destination" than "journey".

To see the people interested in the "journey" on MrExcel by clicking on
Community | Member List
And then sort them by number of Posts. Mostly people in first 20 pages would be the usual suspects. Small percentage compared to total members. I guess that pretty much extends to real world as well.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

My brother has an opinion on how long it takes to develop a skill. His observation is that in almost any skilled occupation it takes about a decade to become 'good'. He's a mechanic and auto-electrician and he figures it took him ten years to acquire the knowledge behind the most common faults according to different vehicle manufacturers, the variety of models, but also to discover which gizmo's work, which ones don't and how to use them. It's quite fun to watch actually. Someone comes in to the workshop and describes a particular problem. My brother plugs a computer into the diagnostic node and it rattles off a huge list of faults. He then scans the report and works out the likely cause - often the long list of errors is a knock-on effect from a single fault. Watching him it makes sense that it took him ten years to develop those skills - it is like watching a magician.

I look at friends in varying occupations and those that seem to really all know their stuff have had a passion for what they do that has lasted at least ten years.

And I think the same is true in my case. It has taken me at least ten years to learn Excel sufficiently to learn how to apply it properly.

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

My brother has an opinion on how long it takes to develop a skill. His observation is that in almost any skilled occupation it takes about a decade to become 'good'. [...]

And Herbert Simon before him. So I'm told (Does someone have a citation?).

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Oh cool. I see this on wikipedia:

He said that to become an expert on a topic required about ten years of experience and he and colleagues estimated that expertise was the result of learning roughly 50,000 chunks of information

 

[taurean]

And Herbert Simon before him. So I'm told (Does someone have a citation?).

Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule - The New Yorker

These days, however there's one more breed of experts (Google experts). Be it code or formula, they can search it in good time. However, this doesn't help if your problem is undocumented. In that case, the 10000 hours expert would surely be the one who will find a solution.

Jon's brother reminds me of another story.

Once, a highly experienced and skilled engineer was called to start the engine of the ship that otherwise was impaired since days. The experienced engineer hit the hammer on some critical part of the engine and voila !. He sent the invoice of 10K Dollars. The captain fumed - "10K for 1 hammer hit". He demanded an itemised bill. The engineer sent the itemised bill

1. Dollar 1 for the hit
2. Dollar 9999 for knowing "Where to hit"

 

[BiocideJ]

Once, a highly experienced and skilled engineer was called to start the engine of the ship that otherwise was impaired since days. The experienced engineer hit the hammer on some critical part of the engine and voila !. He sent the invoice of 10K Dollars. The captain fumed - "10K for 1 hammer hit". He demanded an itemised bill. The engineer sent the itemised bill

1. Dollar 1 for the hit
2. Dollar 9999 for knowing "Where to hit"

I think this story encapsulates the problem with people's perceived knowledge of Excel (or anything). We (myself included) all have a concept of how much we know that is based on the experiences we have had. That perception is framed within the context of our experiences and, truthfully, we are all experts at what we already know.

For instance, if we drew a circle on the beach and every grain of sand in that circle was everything we knew then we could call ourselves experts of that circle. The trick is realizing how small that circle is in relationship to the entire ocean's sand.

Sometimes, I think the only way to realize (or explain) this shortcoming is to expose it to greater knowledge. To me, that is the simple beauty of the forum experience.

 

[Darren Bartrup]

So broken down into the four stages of competence it would take ten years to become unconsciously competent.

I'm sorry to say the easiest explanation to understand of this was on Wikipedia:
Four stages of competence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'd say I'm probably halfway between consciously competent and unconsciously competent - I generally know which formula to use without thinking about it, I can code fairly well without thinking about it but I do still have to stop and ask about some things.

I'll copy whole chunks of code from the internet and it's rare that I won't be able to figure out what it's doing and how (if well written) and sometimes I know that I haven't the skill to achieve a certain task - but I know where to look to get the answer (i.e. I know how to ask Google).