NPR's classic Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge episode resonates in AI era
chrisalbon · x · 2026-10-15
chrisalbon shares NPR Planet Money episode 606, "Spreadsheets!", revisiting how the electronic spreadsheet—born in the late '70s from a bored student—transformed entire industries. Drawing on Steven Levy's 1984 essay "A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge," it frames the spreadsheet as both a tool and a worldview: "reality by the numbers." A historical lens often applied to today's AI disruption.
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