#228 Are Spreadsheets Still Relevant For Data Analysis? with Jordan Goldmeier, Author of Data Smart

Excel often gets unfair criticism from data practitioners, many of us will remember a time when Excel was looked down upon—why would anyone use Excel when we have powerful tools like Python, R, SQL, or BI tools? However, like it or not, Excel is here to stay, and there’s a meme, bordering on reality, that Excel is carrying a large chunk of the world’s GDP. But when it really comes down to it, can you do data science in Excel?

Jordan Goldmeier is an entrepreneur, a consultant, a best-selling author of four books on data, and a digital nomad. He started his career as a data scientist in the defense industry for Booz Allen Hamilton and The Perduco Group, before moving into consultancy with EY, and then teaching people how to use data at Excel TV, Wake Forest University, and now Anarchy Data. He also has a newsletter called The Money Making Machine, and he's on a mission to create 100 entrepreneurs.

In the episode, Adel and Jordan explore excel in data science, excel’s popularity, use cases for Excel in data science, the impact of GenAI on Excel, Power Query and data transformation, advanced Excel features, Excel for prototyping and generating buy-in, the limitations of Excel and what other tools might emerge in its place, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information Into Insight by Jordan Goldmeier
• [Webinar] Developing a Data Mindset: How to Think, Speak, and Understand Data
• [Course] Data Analysis in Excel
• Related Episode: Do Spreadsheets Need a Rethink? With Hjalmar Gislason, CEO of GRID
• Rewatch sessions from RADAR: AI Edition

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