[HN Gopher] Ireland's Diarmuid Early wins world Microsoft Excel ...
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Ireland's Diarmuid Early wins world Microsoft Excel title
Author : 1659447091
Score : 128 points
Date : 2025-12-20 19:56 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| jjmarr wrote:
| Does Microsoft gain useful information about product UX from
| this? Wondering if any Excel PMs watch this and see where micro-
| optimizations are made.
| lysace wrote:
| Excel was completed at least a decade ago (probably two).
|
| This is obviously 99% marketing. Microsoft/Waggener Edstrom
| tend to be really good at getting mainstream media to report on
| the marketing activities.
|
| Example: For many Windows launches since Windows 3/95, there's
| been this media splash where Microsoft spends x million dollars
| on marketing and mainstream media then reports this, thereby
| getting (like) 100x millions worth of exposure.
| triclops200 wrote:
| I had no idea this was real. Fascinating. I'm curious: anyone
| plugged into the scene know if it's organic or if it was created
| as a marketing thing by Microsoft?
|
| Obligatory Krazam sketch:
| https://youtu.be/xubbVvKbUfY?si=h6QR2gzac48R6kca
| sieep wrote:
| From my understanding it wasn't started or ran by Microsoft.
| They have Microsoft listed as the first sponsor on their main
| website, for what it's worth.
|
| https://fmworldcup.com/
| airstrike wrote:
| Pretty sure it started as a joke and evolved into a real thing.
| I actually won an Excel spreadsheet in High School quite a long
| while ago. Makes me wonder if I should try out...
| jasonthorsness wrote:
| The descriptions of the problems make it sound a little like
| algorithmic puzzles but your only tool is Excel instead of some
| programming language... Excel is pretty amazing in what you can
| do; I've regretted having to use Google Sheets for the last few
| years.
| Bridged7756 wrote:
| Yup. Not too long ago they added Python scripting. Definitely
| beats the weird cloud scripting you have to do with Google
| Sheets.
| HPsquared wrote:
| Excel Python runs in the cloud. It is nicely integrated
| though.
| shagie wrote:
| > but your only tool is Excel instead of some programming
| language
|
| There is little difference between (if (> a b) c d) and =IF((A1
| > B1), C1, D1)
|
| Excel is the most widely installed functional programming
| language IDE.
| OoooooooO wrote:
| Change the language of your Windows system to anything but
| English and then open your Excel file with formulas again.
| mmooss wrote:
| ok, what happens? (I'm not messing around on my system
| right now ...)
| shrx wrote:
| Localization of formulas. On my system, all parameter-
| separating commas have to be replaced with semicolons.
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| I don't get your point
|
| programming languages aren't allowed to be in non-english
| somehow?
| paddy_m wrote:
| I wish more programmers would pay attention to how productive
| power users in different can be with their tools. Look at CAD
| competitions. I wonder if there are video editting competitions?
| colmmacc wrote:
| The Oscars, The Golden Globes, the Emmys, just a few!
| salviati wrote:
| You never get to see the action there. Just the finished
| product.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I think this may actually be two different things. Much
| like how being good at coding doesn't mean it's fun to
| watch you code. Though there are "performance" coders where
| it really is!
| chongli wrote:
| Although they do have a category for best editing, it's hard
| to call it an award for "best film editor" when it doesn't
| control for the overall quality of the film. For example,
| with the Oscars, it's extremely common (2/3 of the time) for
| a film that wins best picture to also win best editing.
| anamexis wrote:
| I wonder how you could construct a reasonably controlled
| competition for film editing.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Perhaps that's because Best Picture isn't controlling for
| the effect that good editing has on the film.
| lysace wrote:
| Programming efficiency isn't about typing/editing fast - it's
| about great decision-making. Although I have seen the combo of
| both working out very well.
|
| If you focus on fast typing/editing skills to level up, but
| still have bad decision-making skills, you'll just end up
| burying yourself (and possibly your team) faster. (I have seen
| that, too.)
| orlp wrote:
| The person you replied to stated:
|
| > how productive power users in different [fields] can be
| with their tools
|
| There are a lot more tools in programming than your text
| editor. Linters, debuggers, AI assistants, version control,
| continuous integration, etc.
|
| I personally know I'm terrible at using debuggers. Is this a
| shortcoming of mine? Probably. But I also feel debuggers
| could be a lot, lot better than they are right now.
|
| I think for a lot of us reflecting at our workflow and seeing
| things we do that could be done more efficiently with better
| (usage of) tooling could pay off.
| etbebl wrote:
| I interpreted the original comment totally differently - I
| thought they were saying that the programmers [who created
| these tools] should pay more attention to how productive [or
| not] power users can be with the tools [that they created].
| And use that as an important metric for software quality.
| Which I definitely agree with.
| doctorhandshake wrote:
| I used to work as technical director for a touring live graphic
| design, 3D modeling, and animation tournament. It was kind of
| like iron chef for designers. They worked live in timed rounds
| with their screens projected overhead. It was sponsored by
| Adobe, Autodesk, and Wacom. It was pretty impressive to see how
| power users did their thing for sure.
| two-sandwich wrote:
| It's interesting that the challenges are not business or
| accounting centred, as is the expectation when using Excel. If
| this is now general problem solving, are we watching language-
| specific competitive programming through the lens of a more
| broadly accessible platform like MS Excel?
|
| I enjoy the idea, and love watching it grow.
| stackghost wrote:
| Excel is a general purpose computing environment and has been
| for quite some time.
|
| When I was in the air force we had a complete aircraft
| maintenance planning and performance management system entirely
| in Excel. It can connect to remote workbooks on a shared
| drive/SharePoint too, so the higher headquarters would tie into
| our dashboard for their own operational readiness tracking.
|
| It was a total shit show of undocumented pseudo APIs with zero
| change management or version control but it worked somehow.
| medell wrote:
| It used to be financial modeling but they realized they'd get
| more attention with the esports audience this way.
|
| It's gone quite far now - one of the many challenges was a mock
| terrain map where you'd calculate distances to hike while
| considering the weight of your pack. Even the way they walk
| through the tunnel is done for show.
| 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
| There is also the mocumentary flick of the Excel eTournament
| scene with "Makro"
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubbVvKbUfY
| beasthacker wrote:
| This is too good.
| machros wrote:
| Not unlikely it inspired the whole pro excel scene to exist.
| HPsquared wrote:
| Life imitates art.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Don't forget part two
|
| https://youtu.be/ICp2-EUKQAI
| donsupreme wrote:
| Should be 'Michael Jordan of spreadsheets'
| littlestymaar wrote:
| Did he retired spreadsheets to become a professional baseball
| player?
| buybackoff wrote:
| The Spiderman would be better. If anyone used formulas'
| precedents/dependents that would be instantly visual.
| d-lisp wrote:
| Looks a bit like vimgolfing [0]
|
| [0] https://www.vimgolf.com/
| buybackoff wrote:
| I could do half-screen nested array formulas when Excel was
| before the ribbon (and screen resolutions were smaller), out of
| necessity and because I could. It was in quite demanding uni home
| calculations and then mostly when working as intern in IB. But
| then having a life is also important...
|
| The only thing I still enjoy is that any data smaller than 1M
| rows is sliced and diced almost without thinking. I am sometimes
| really grateful that MS did not break the shortcuts, while almost
| breaking the product overall. The muscle memory works perfectly.
| xattt wrote:
| I don't understand how a Microsoft team that respects its
| customers (and maintains shortcuts) can co-exist in an org that
| sees their customer as marks.
| otterley wrote:
| It's almost as though organizations are made of human beings
| who have complicated relationships, differing opinions, and
| nuanced thinking.
| secretsatan wrote:
| Possibly messing with the guys who handle the money make for
| the loudest complaints
| bongodongobob wrote:
| I had a negative view of MS when I was young. Then I got jobs
| at large orgs managing IT for 1000s of people. I don't know
| how else you'd do it without the Microsoft stack. I'm not
| saying you can't, but good luck managing whatever custom ball
| of knots you manage to come up with and also finding people
| to work on it for you. If you think open office and some kind
| of custom IAM solution will work, you just don't have the
| experience to have an opinion on it, IMHO.
| djaouen wrote:
| Come Feel The Heat With These Great Feats of Spreadsheets lol
|
| Edit: Of course, they changed the title! [1]
|
| [1] https://share.google/qJYSGYMKihkjh7bql
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| Any link to the problems that were being solved?
| scop wrote:
| You know what they say about the Irish and spreadsheets...
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