linky to tweet

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Apparently there were cuneiform spreadsheets

Truly nothing new under the sun lol

picture showing table filled with data 4000 years ago

source of tweet

  • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    3 hours ago

    …did you think spreadsheets were created for computers?

  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    30·
    6 hours ago

    The only thing I ever seem to learn about foreign cultures (across space or time or both) is that the people in them were basically the same as the people everywhere else. All differences are directly attributable to material conditions.

  • piggy [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    32·
    6 hours ago

    This one of those things that seems anachronistic but it’s not. Much like the complaint tablet of El Nasir

    Yeah people tabulated data thousands of years ago, crazy. In fact you probably do less personal accounting than people 200 years ago let alone ~5000.

    This is one of those America brained things where you don’t realize that there are these things called seasons that affect resource extraction and in societies where you didn’t have the global imperial might to cajole resource trade in off seasons and have the logistical technology to deliver it, you had to actually plan for winter or die.

    It’s why almanacs were a thing for centuries, here’s a Roman one inscribed on a stone pillar:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menologia_rustica

    • blame [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      14·
      5 hours ago

      even like 40 years ago people would use checks and their bank accounts wouldnt update instantly so theyd have to track their money manually.

      • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        3 hours ago

        Not even 40 years ago. I was still manually tracking my bank account around ~15 years ago because my university was still doing a lot of stuff by check. You could either pay in cash or by check, no debit or credit allowed because of how old their system was in the billing department.

      • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        12·
        5 hours ago

        yeah, it is wild how easy the tools make it these days. I’ve always monitored my own shit / done my own taxes, etc. when I was in grad school, I got really good at spreadsheet functions for complex processes, and pulling in modeled data.

        so, of course, I started developing sheets for all kinds of shit, just to mess around and link data. it used to be real easy to download transaction data. its still doable, but more annoying now.

        anyway, the point being, I probably spend as much time tracking and analyzing my money situation as my grandparents did, but now I can rapidly generate beautiful graphs and do analysis on all kinds of shit to quantify the impact of buying decisions over time.

        I finished and filed my taxes like a week ago and all my friends just roll their eyes at how I can answer the most obscure questions about utility/energy costs, price points on meal ingredients, etc. and like, sure once a year I spend an hour or so bulk updating/refining the data for analysis, but other wise I spend like maybe 10-15 minutes a month.

        it all started just as an exercise to keep my data analysis skills sharp, but now it’s an addiction. a very nerdy addiction.