Excel Turns 40: Why We Can't Quit Microsoft's Spreadsheet App

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00:00There are not too many people who love Microsoft Excel.

00:03If you try to imagine like the most depressing version of a modern workplace, so kind of

00:08gray carpets, high wall cubicles, sad salads, Microsoft Excel on computer screens.

00:15Even though a lot of people despise this thing, I think you could make an argument that it

00:20is the single most important piece of software ever created.

00:24Excel today has around 500 million paying users.

00:28It's sold by Microsoft as part of a product suite that pulls in around a hundred billion

00:32dollars in revenue, and it is running pretty much every business you can imagine.

00:38Hedge funds use it, marketers use it, accountants use it, I mean, all the way up to the literal

00:43Pentagon.

00:44It's been 40 years since a handful of Microsoft programmers sat around and essentially developed

00:49a copycat to what was then the leading spreadsheet software, which was called Lotus 1-2-3.

00:55And in that time, Excel has basically taken over the business world.

00:59And it has come to symbolize a lot of the stuff that people don't like about office jobs and

01:05even capitalism.

01:06It's cost cutting, it's efficiency, it's layoffs.

01:09But today, Excel is at the center of pretty much every office job.

01:13There are influencers who attract millions of views, giving out Excel tips on YouTube and

01:18TikTok and Instagram.

01:20There's even a world championship where you have the best Excel athletes competing for

01:24an actual championship belt.

01:27But I think the biggest thing, the biggest reason that Excel has had such staying power

01:31is just the spreadsheet itself.

01:32This is probably the technology created over the last 50 years that most changed the modern

01:39workplace.

01:40And Microsoft, for better or worse, sits at the center of that.