Philosophy

FAQ

Will my non‑programmer colleagues understand the tools I build?

Yes. The Add‑in runs in two modes:

Developer Mode – You script imports, write logic, test.
End‑User Mode – They click buttons and get results.

Why would I “work for free” to help my boss?

Learning on the clock beats learning at 10p.m.
Your day job supplies real data, real deadlines, and real feedback—fuel you can’t recreate on nights and weekends.
Code written for your team delivers instant purpose, excitement, and dopamine. Conversely, online coding tutorials put you to sleep.

Internet advice says “never work off the clock.” Fair enough for an extra Sunday spreadsheet, but coding is different: every line you write today pays compound interest through time saved on the next report, and expanded mental models.

Creating software "so useful it can't be ignored" effectively inverts the traditional employee-employer relationship. You are "wearing the pants" so to speak.

Insecure business managers may react fearfully to your promising work. But trying to outright stop you will jeopardize their IP interest in the software you create— what happens if you keep coding anyway? What happens if you go to their competitor?

Great managers will embrace your interest. We suggest you respond with extreme patience and understanding towards any manager who supports you.

Perhaps ironically, the road to super-disruptive software is through harmony, not rebellion. Cultivate a sense of service, and helping others.

Remaining in a state of conflict over extended periods robs your mental capacity. It diverts attention from more interesting and productive problems. Endeavor for peace.

Why hasn’t anyone created an Excel Add‑in like this already?

Modern software advancements chase billion‑row databases, distributed clouds, hype metrics. In other words: Battlestar Galactica.

This reflects the "polite genteel" state of commercial software today. It presumes a bright line separating coding engineers and end users. Our opinion of this model? British redcoats standing open field.

Our Excel Addin reflects dirty guerilla warfare tactics. The scale and speed are comically bad compared to modern systems... the idea of writing a database engine inside single-threaded VBA is absurd.

And yet— anyone dealing with under 10,000 records-- you may not perceive any difference in speed. The addin might even be faster!

Our addin is consciously abandons hyper-scale and concurrency in exchange for putting practical powers of expression into the hands of business.

We also made it stealth. So you can get the plane in the air at work, without any permission slip from IT.

If Excel is inevitable, why fight it?

Every fancy SaaS eventually exports to .xlsx for “final tweaks.” So why not skip the detour?

Keep core data inside the corporate Battlestar Galactica., import a relevant slice into Excel, and finish the journey with surgical control.

In other words: if you already know you're "going home" with Excel, why not embrace it all the way?

My programmer friend says VBA is dead; learn Python or C# instead.

Your friend is probably part of the "genteel" class of professional programmers. Here are counter-points to whatever your friend told you:

Proximity. VBA lives where the work lives—inside Excel.

Probability. IT blocks most installs; VBA ships pre‑approved. Using a different language is a non-starter.

Practicality. Business analysis is messy and incremental. Python shines in scripted pipelines; Excel shines when humans tweak intermediate numbers mid‑flow.

Does your friend expect every employee to become fluent in Python?
Because, unless you anticipate every input, handle every edge case, up front— your colleagues will go straight back to Excel.
The beauty of coding in Excel is when one part of the program fails, your colleagues simply build a side-table and move on to the next part.

Auditability. Compared to Excel, Python scripts are a black box.

A petroleum analyst will want to verify figures by testing ratios, easily done in Excel.
Or they may need to "tune" specific aspects (like a formula) to adjust for an unusual client situation or request.
Your friend may say "oh, but they could just request access to the python codebase and go modify the code, its really easy you see... blah blah" ... Business people understand the ridiculousness of this proposition.

If you need to automate a nightly web scraping job, use Python. If you want to build flexible golf carts for your team, give our VBA addin a try.

Lastly, your friend should be considering first order principles. Why has Excel persisted so long? It is no accident that nearly one billion humans on planet earth are using Excel in 2025. One should hesitate before dismissing Excel as "dumb."

How should I handle version control?

Version control refers to tracking changes you make to code over time. Usually this means "storing your VBA code on GitHub".

There is no "automatic" version control, it's something you would need intentionally to set up yourself.

However, if you are writing code on a company laptop, do not use version control / GitHub. The reason is your employment contract probably contains language asserting Company Ownership of any intellectual property (IP) you create on company hardware and/or company time.

At best, transferring your source code to the outside world (eg GitHub) will alarm IT and legal departments. It may also violate your employment contract.

To achieve the same effect, at the end of each day, "Save as" your workbook, and append the filename with the _current_date.