In Appreciation of Technological Progress

Last week, I was working on some Google Sheets, analyzing data and using various tools in combination with ChatGPT, and I was just in awe of technological progress. The power we have today is truly incredible.

When I was in high school, I participated in a program called an externship. A few times a week during my last two periods, I would go to an internship at a local business called Super-Lube, an oil change company with a dozen locations throughout the Florida panhandle. My role was to shadow the COO and assist him with various special projects. The project that stands out the most was one where, every week, he would receive a printout of each store’s sales numbers, oil changes, filter changes, product upsells, hours worked, labor costs, and more. This printout contained weekly updates for each store across multiple categories.

My task was to examine the printed spreadsheet by hand, looking for any numbers that seemed unusual on a week-to-week basis. While there might have been some seasonal variations or differences based on the time of year, most weeks were fairly consistent. The ultimate goal of this manual exercise was to detect any signs of theft at individual stores. This was a weekly project that the COO did by hand, repeatedly.

A couple of decades later, technology has made this task—and many others—not only fully automated but also simpler and more insightful. My first introduction to spreadsheets was through printouts at an oil change business, and now, I sit here appreciating the power we have at our fingertips. I’m a techno-optimist and believe we have an exciting future ahead. Sometimes, it’s worthwhile to pause and reflect on what has been, what is, and what will be.