Why a simple spreadsheet spread like wildfire

One day we will figure out what parts of the brain allow some people to prefer working using one way rather than the other. Until then, I'm glad that we have both.

Everything is mutable by default, but changing one variable automatically updates all dependents.

This style is also getting more popular elsewhere, and with RxJava and RxAndroid nowadays you can even use it on android.

If not anywhere else, then surely on a hacker news site, one would expect not to see a statement of the form "this way that things have always been done is the only way to do it" (especially if 'it' is a subjective thing like presenting data clearly; think about the totally changing UI paradigms that could authoritatively have been predicted to be impossible before the widespread availability of touch-based interaction).

People who have early success within an area of study will tend to think of themselves as a natural and will put in more practice time than a person who has not had early success. People who had early failures will continue to see themselves as "struggling" at the subject, regardless of their actual skill level. The only advantage the "natural" has is that this emotional response to the subject makes it easier to decide to practice: people of equal practice level are almost always equally skilled, even in opposition to their subjective self-evaluation, barring general mental deficiency.

There's no "math" gene. There's no "art" gene. There's only intelligence and it can be applied to any subject. The idea that people's neuroplasticity somehow "hardens" in the mid-20s or whatever is just an excuse that people make for themselves for why they bought an electric guitar but then never practiced at it. When you're a kid, you don't have a lot of different concerns competing for your time. When you're an adult, it's easy to put off a new subject when you can be productive doing something else. It's completely social.