https://www.visidata.org/

Blows Excel out of the water, and it's not even close. And it's free, open source, and completely extensible (with Python, not some godforsaken excuse for a programming language).

we aren't in college to learn a specific skill so much as we are there to learn how to be taught.

I really like this idea, but prefer one small change: I think it's best to learn how to learn.

Learning how to be taught is part of that, and a large part. Understanding when to absorb information, rely on experts, and apply yourself until you improve is fundamental. You won't get any arguments from me there.

But being taught is only one facet of learning. Sometimes experts aren't really experts, or don't have the learner's best interests at heart, or omit things to protect their own interests or ideology.

Learning how to learn involves fostering fundamental curiosity, not being afraid to fail, asking all the questions even dumb ones or those with seemingly obvious answers. Finding out "why" something works instead of just "how". Fundamentally curious people who learn as a habit tend to also develop a scientific method-like approach to evaluating incoming information: "Ok, this is the information I'm presented with, let's assume the opposite, can I prove the null hypothesis?" This acts as a pretty good bullshit detector, or at the very least trains learners to be skeptical, to trust but verify, which is enormously important in the age of misinformation.

Being taught generally tapers off as someone gets older, or becomes an expert. Learning never needs to taper off, so long as your brain still works.

Learning to learn is what the 12 years of babysitting we all go through is supposed to be doing. The fact you overlook that is why we have a >50% illiteracy rate in the USA. Post secondary education is 100% about learning advanced skills and developing the techniques needed for a career. Saying otherwise is why companies are looking for doctoral degrees for entry level positions and they can all burn in hell.

"Sometimes Excel is what's available."

I worked for a Big Company that was cutting back and dropped their Oracle contracts, forcing all the DBAs to work in Access. Then they fired all the DBAs, forcing everyone to either try to figure out Access or switch to Excel. Guess which way they went.

In my last job at that company, my department had built an Excel spreadsheet (database) so large and full of calculations they had to request money to update our machines to 64-bit Windows and 16GB RAM just to run it.

For most of us, we aren’t in college to learn a specific skill so much as we are there to learn how to be taught. To prove we are capable of taking instructions and producing results as requested.

This is true to the extent that you won't be solving Organic Chemistry 1 or Linear Algebra exercises at your workplace, but I think it's misleading. If anything, from my experience, people focus too much on producing the results and not enough on learning the skills. A lot of people stay on the mindset of "I only need the degree / where am I going to need that / the industry has moved on from this" and don't build strong foundations

Lemmy Silver™🥈 incoming !