A bit of an unusual suggestion, but i’ve replaced Excel with Python. I deal with large datasets anyway, so Python was arguably a better fit for what i do.

Packages to check out to see what is possible…

• Streamlit = easy UIs, dashboards, and tables.
• Pandas = dataframe handling, excel, csv ingestion
• Numpy/Scipy = math
• Sqlalchemy/pyodbc = DB connectivity
• xlsxwriter = writing out to exls
• DuckDB = in-memory joins/transformations locally between dataframes using SQL. Basically all the power of a relational DB without a DB server.
• Plotly = graphing

Everything is in text files. Scripts are version controlled in git. Calcs happen super fast. I spend more time transferring data from DBs than waiting for the calcs to finish.

Do Japanese shinto and buddhist believers count?

It’s a stupid reason. Historically, if you were a peasant and had been granted access to land, you grew food or herbs. If however you were a lord, you got your food from your peasants. You had no need to grow your own food. So they could afford to grow lawns as a sign of wealth.

This has transferred across into the modern psyche. Lawns are a way of saying “i’m so rich, i don’t have to worry about sustenance. In fact i’ll throw money at it to maintain this slab of green rather than have it provide food, or shade.”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/202002/the-strange-psychology-the-american-lawn