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'this is the title of my post
I'm such an excel-nerd.

I spent the entire afternoon programming, just to create these adorable forms for a project I'm doing for the Senator.

Of course, my form of programming goes something like this:
"Excel SHOULD be able to do this."
"I don't know how to make it do that."
"I will go google various terms."
"Oh look! Someone answered my question."
"I will now steal his code, adapt it for my purposes, add a few lines, hope it works..."
"Yay!! I'm smart!!"

But it's fun!

In any case, the more Excel work I've done here, the more I've realized one fundamental principle: While technology knows how to be efficient, most individuals don't.

So I have one recommendation for government offices, everywhere. Hire a mid-level computer programmer. Delete one of your legislative aides, or executive assistants, and get yourself an in-house computer person. Have him shadow people for a couple of weeks, figuring out their jobs. Then, give him free reign to improve the systems any way he sees fit. In a few months he'll improve the efficiency of your office by leaps and bounds, and more than make up the difference in saved time that the other staff member would have given you.

Of course, this predicates on the government being able to find a computer programmer to hire. But, considering they don't let enough of them into this country in the first place because they have artificially low quotas for H-1b visas, that's increasingly unlikely.