The amount of panic I feel when I’m told “the math doesn’t math” is both comical and terrifying. My head begins to scream ‘please don’t ask me!’ I like to believe I’m decent at math I am but not for fun or anything. I do the words. Not the numbers.
Imagine my mood after 2 days of number things. Crap mood, mental exhaustion, indescribable tiredness. And people really do this for a living? Whackadoo.
The antiquated Air Force, and other branches I suspect, has done us no favors when data analysis is the actual future. I need numbers to justify decisions, to request funds, to build a business plan. The paper records we’re meticulously coveting? Not a useful format. So I spent days building templates for these paper numbers, to feed into a digital thing so I can perform trend analysis.
It was a huge undertaking. And my mood suffered immensely.
Interestingly, those who have a deep love or passion for numbers are considered methodical, even predictable. I don’t know if I completely buy into this; however, I will admit the numbers people should be very thankful it comes naturally to them. Because the rest of us? Well, I have a few new gray hairs.
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I ask you –
What are your thoughts on spreadsheets and Excel and numbers?
(The post It’s all in the numbers first appeared here at Running on Fumes.)
© 2026 Running on Fumes
Running on Fumes 
I used to be all about Excel for data analysis. After interning with the NPS doing data science, I prefer to use the R programming language in RStudio. I like the reproducible workflows and flexibility better.
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Honestly, I only understand about 4 of the words you typed hahaha Help!
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