zlacker

>>flocia+(OP)
This makes me wonder what someone with less computer experience would do, ie if you're not a former computer professional.

Sure, open source makes everything rather accessible from a monetary point of view, but you still have to learn things. I almost feel like in the past there were more attempts at making this accessible to the end user, HyperCard, dbase etc, even just BASIC on your 8-bit machine.

Nowadays? Excel/Google Sheets for the most simple case, probably, but if you have to transfer data from/into there or present it differently? Web sites and GUIs aren't that easy, but it's what the users know.

If your point of interaction with a computer is more bare-bones (eg a BASIC/DOS prompt), solutions feel closer, easier to grasp.

>>mhd+jc
I know a lot of financial analysts who don’t know how to “program” but develop incredibly complicated Turing complete excel models regularly. Excel is a very flexible tool and can be leveraged to great effect.

>>mruts+Kr
I know for a fact that up until around 2006 the official US Treasury curve for one of the big financial reporting firms was created/maintained on an Excel spreadsheet that was one step away from becoming sentient and asking us if we wanted to go get high.