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A comment on U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is sure why. Parent comment

Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by TeMPOraL on Monday October 31, 2022 @08:29PM (#33415373)
> Most of them would likely stick to Excel if our solutions are more cumbersome (which is a high bar to meet/beat, but rightfully so)

Tying this back to the top-level comment: at some point I've realized that so many SaaS would be better off as an Excel sheet, because they're fundamentally just a slower, buggier, much less productive and uglier version of one. But the point isn't efficiency and empowerment. The point is control: the SaaS forces the user to a specific workflow. One that makes it easier for developers to develop (by constraining the problem space), or for company to monetize, or for corporate to retain legibility - but rarely to actually help the end-user.

As an end user from a generation that was taught Excel and MS Access at school, I'd go as far as saying that 50+% of web applications I use would be an order of magnitude more useful if the UX was that of Excel or Access.

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Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by kcplate on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @12:25AM (#33416893)
> Tying this back to the top-level comment: at some point I've realized that so many SaaS would be better off as an Excel sheet

I preach this all the time. Anyone who has to enter data really wants excel and not the fancy wizardized stepped workflow that seems to be the norm nowadays

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Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by beambot on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @01:09AM (#33417195)
You have to (at least!) account for concurrent edit & access. I remember the hellscape that was emailing files like ProjectPlan_v6_beambotEdits_latest.xls to team members.
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Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by deafpolygon on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @05:28AM (#33418848)
This is what MS Access was developed for.
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Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by Arrath on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @03:02PM (#33441235)
Nowadays with team shared storage like Box, Dropbox, One Drive etc, it's "HEY EVERYONE ELSE CLOSE Project_Costs_and_Totals_11.22(15).xlsx I NEED TO ADD LAST WEEKS DATA"
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Re:U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is s... by deafpolygon on Tuesday November 01, 2022 @05:28AM (#33418843)
> for company to monetize

I suspect an overwhelming majority of use cases is for this reason alone.

[ Parent | on HN ]