"As Dan Bricklin remembers it, the idea first came to him in the spring of 1978 while he was sitting in a classroom at the Harvard Business School. It was the kind of idea—so obvious, so right— that made him immediately wonder why no one else had thought of it."

"The question Bricklin was pondering that day in 1978 concerned how he might use what he knew about computers to help him in his finance course."

"This was the assignment: he and several other students had been asked to project the complicated financial implications- the shift in numbers and dollars, and the shifts resulting from these shifts- of one company’s acquisition of another."

"The problem with ledger sheets was that if one monthly expense went up or down, everything – everything – had to be recalculated."

"It was a tedious task, and few people who earned their MBAs at Harvard expected to work with spreadsheets very much."

"Bricklin knew all this, but he also knew that spreadsheets were needed for the exercise; he wanted an easier way to do them. It occurred to him: why not create the spreadsheets on a microcomputer?"

"Why not make an electronic spreadsheet, a word processor for figures?"

"With a computer programmer friend from MIT named Bob Frankston, he set to work developing the first electronic spreadsheet program. It would be contained on a floppy disk and run on the then brand-new Apple personal computer."

"Bricklin and Frankson released VisiCalc (the name was derived from Visible Calculation) in late 1979."

"“The spreadsheet in that comparison is like the transcontinental railroad. It accelerated the movement, made it possible, and changed the course of the nation.”"

"But saving time is hardly the only benefit of spreadsheets. They encourage businesses to keep track of things that were previously unquantified or altogether overlooked."

"Yet what really has the spreadsheet users charmed is not the hard and fast figures but the “what if” factor: the ability to create scenarios, explore hypothetical developments, try out different options."

"The what-if factor has not only changed the nature of jobs such as accounting; it has altered once rigid organizational structures."

"The what-if factor has changed the way Allen Sneider, a partner in the Boston office of Laventhol & Harwath, a national accounting firm, approaches his job."

"Junior analysts, without benefit of secretaries or support from data processing departments, can work up 50-page reports, complete with graphs and charts, advocating a complicated course of action for a client."

"They talk of “playing” with the numbers, “massaging” the model. Computer “hackers” lose themselves in the intricacies of programming; spreadsheet hackers lose themselves in the world of what-if."

"Maxwell was his own boss and could follow his instincts. But a corporate executive who ignored such a clear-cut bottom-line conclusion might be risking his professional life. He is more likely to follow the numbers turned out by spreadsheets."

"So Stockman was able to fortify the Administration with figures — generated by a computer — showing that the deficit would not be problem."

"The buzz word these days in computer software firms looking to expand their markets is “personal productivity,” as if the home itself — maybe life itself – were best viewed as a business."

"Spreadsheets are at the heart of this movement. Using electronic spreadsheets, everyone can run his or her own business."

"There is no doubt that the electronic spreadsheet saves time and provides insight; there is no doubt that even greater benefits will one day be derived from these grids."

"Yet all these benefits will be meaningless if the spreadsheet metaphor is taken too much to heart. After all, it is only a metaphor."

"Of human behavior, no faultless assumptions – and so no perfect model — can be made."

"Fortunately, few would argue that all relations between people can be quantified and manipulated by formulas."

"“Startups come into YC with raw DNA. We edit the DNA so that they have the alleles that make it more likely for them to be successful.”"

"It is even fair to say the economy itself has organized around YC’s shotgun-style investment philosophy rather than the traditional VC rifle shot."

"But maybe YC’s biggest contribution was to champion a way to look at founders. Over the course of the last decade and a half, founders have become central figures in the drama of our time."

"Under the laws of founderism, the sheer audacity of ambition makes the craziest plans the most valuable—the long shots that can pay off big."

"Graham would encourage them to make a slide showing how their idea would scale into something humongous."

"“Instead of seeing the company based on its business model, and replacing the founders with some professional manager, you choose a company based on founders, and you help founders.”"

"“If you feel like these founders have a good kernel of an idea, and they approach the problem the correct way, and they seem like thoughtful, smart people, then it’s worth a shot.”"

"Indeed, YC doesn’t see its role as vetting the science or monitoring the business practices of the companies it funds. The partners aren’t necessarily betting on a business model, they’re just putting a few chips on the founders, some of whom might have come up with their ideas just days or even hours before interviewing."