🚀 A Nostalgic Leap from VisiCalc to AI: Because Who Doesn't Love a Good Spreadsheet Saga? 🚀

Over the weekend, I embarked on a time-traveling escapade at a computer fair with my father. Amidst the tech relics, I stumbled upon a sealed copy of VisiCalc. Yes, the Mona Lisa of spreadsheets, now just a whisper from the past. The fair was a quirky blend of nostalgia, with vendors who could easily double as characters from a retired Radio Shack employee reunion—living proof that there's life after retail, thanks in part to the unsung heroes of bankruptcy law.

🌟 From Abacus 2.0 to Excel: More Functions Than You Can Shake a Stick At 🌟

VisiCalc burst onto the scene in 1979, revolutionizing the 'tedious task of arithmetic' by allowing folks to do math without actually doing math. Fast forward, and we have Excel, a behemoth that can probably run a small country with its functions—assuming the country operates on pivot tables and VLOOKUPs. Despite Excel's arsenal of functions that could make a mathematician weep, I'd wager that 90% of us are still just adding and subtracting. It's the little things, right?

You can play with VisiCalc here: VisiCalc (1981) | PCjs Machines

💻 Enter AI: Because Excel Needed a Bigger Brain 💻

Now, the plot thickens with AI and Python's pandas library turning financial analysis into something out of a sci-fi novel. And here's the kicker: Excel and Google Sheets are getting in on the AI action because, apparently, they felt left out. The future is here, and it's ready to autocomplete your financial models before you can say "machine learning."

📊 Looking Back to See Ahead: The Spreadsheet Chronicles 📊

Reflecting on our journey from VisiCalc's humble beginnings to Excel's attempt at world domination, it's clear we've come a long way. And yet, at the heart of it all, we're still just playing with numbers, chasing the dream of making sense of the financial universe, one cell at a time.

📈 Graphic Timeline: VisiCalc to Modern Excel 📈

📘 Epilogue: Where Old Meets New 📘

In a moment of what can only be described as pure geek bliss, I bought that copy of VisiCalc. It'll soon grace our Orange County office, not merely as a piece of history but as a beacon of geekdom. It's our very own financial Excalibur, ready to regale the uninitiated with tales of a time when "cut and paste" wasn't just a keyboard function. For the new recruits, already fluent in ChatGPT and who may regard spreadsheets as ancient relics, it's a bridge to the arcane arts of finance. And for us veterans, it's a reminder that sometimes, all you need is a simple formula to change the world—or at least balance it.

Here's toasting to the past, present, and future of number crunching, where every new tool stands on the shoulders of giants, aiming to make our financial analyses a tad less tedious and a lot more fun.

For those of you who can't see the details of the illustration at the top:

#VisiCalc #FinancialAdvisory #AI #Python #DataAnalysis #TechnologyEvolution #SpreadsheetRevolution

PS- Yes, this was the result of a conversation between ChatGPT and me. You can see the discussion here: https://chat.openai.com/share/e/b293b45d-03bd-4bc4-8176-494b776e9839

I used ChatGPT and a diagram generator plug-in (Whimsical) for the graphic: https://chat.openai.com/share/e/56e471a4-44c3-405e-bc89-382d65e7ff73

I also used ChatGPT to draw the illustration.