Throughout my personal and professional experience with Microsoft Excel, I've come across many people who get frustrated with the spreadsheet application because they haven't conceptualized beforehand what they're trying to do. I've even received comments from #Steemit members, so the frustration is quite common and understandable.
Before you learn any new details or functions about Excel -- and this goes for computer programming in general -- you must first ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. If you don't know that, you're going to really struggle with memorizing the incredible array of functions and formulas that are available to you.
For instance, I had massive problems early on with the "VLOOKUP" formula. For starters, my pro colleagues who knew this formula inside and out had a terrible way of explaining it. I had one colleague who sat me down, and explained the technical nuts and bolts. And while I took copious notes, that really didn't help me either. It was like calculus class for me --all these shapes and figures and formulas, but no rational reason why this had anything to do with anything.
It wasn't until I actually started my own business that I became a VLOOKUP expert. It all started with a problem that I, not some a--hole sitting in the corner office suite, had to solve. I needed to lookup stock price fluctuations on specific dates to verify correlation with news or events that should impact company shares. I could do this the old fashioned away, but that would take hours. I could use VLOOKUP, and take literally minutes to write out the formula, and get exactly what I need.
Today, I'm a VLOOKUP expert and that has contributed to my success as a professional #investing analyst. Personal necessity forced me to come up with a solution. Because there was a link between my needs and my learning a specific function in Excel, I've never forgotten this skill. It's now second nature...even years after not using it on a daily basis.
And that's really the #Steem-Ed lesson I want to impart to you today -- you can learn a bunch of formulas and functions all day long. But how the hell does any of it relate to you or to solving your problem? So before you start any educational endeavor, know what your ask is! It will save you considerable time and frustration!
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