Rant of the Day: The Poll for Deleting a Row – and the Existential Crisis of Excel

Ah, LinkedIn. That land of “professional” insights and, apparently, burning questions about which shortcut deletes an active row in Excel. Today’s rant is inspired by the latest example: a poll from Shubham Patel, where he asked for the “quickest shortcut to delete a row in Excel.” Here’s the lineup of choices: Ctrl + -, Ctrl + D, Alt + -, and Shift + -. Over a thousand Excel warriors have passionately cast their votes—why? Good question.

Let’s pause for a moment and appreciate the irony here. If this was a one-off spreadsheet for, say, a sole proprietor tracking a few business expenses, sure, delete a row here, delete a row there. But here’s the deeper question: What are you actually doing if deleting rows with a shortcut is your daily need?

The Standalone Spreadsheet Syndrome

Let’s examine this scenario in two very different worlds:

1. One-Man Army Spreadsheet – You’re a solo entrepreneur, doing everything on spreadsheets, from business tracking to managing data. Here, shortcuts are your best friends because it’s just you, no integration, no scalability concerns. Fine—use whatever shortcuts suit your whims.
2. Spreadsheet as Part of a Larger Enterprise Process – Now, if this is part of a wider organizational process where accuracy, data consistency, and collaboration are key, the obsession with deleting rows on the fly is more concerning. This isn’t just a shortcut issue; it’s a workflow problem! Are you really supposed to be manually deleting rows in a spreadsheet that potentially impacts others? This is where “manual work” meets “Excel Hell.”

Shortcut Warriors vs. System Thinkers

For those in large enterprises, here’s where I get philosophical: If you need a shortcut to delete rows, are you architecting spreadsheets correctly? Or are you stuck in an outdated workflow that could benefit from some real systemization? Let’s face it: if your job relies on row-deletion shortcuts, what’s management’s take on this “essential” work?

If you’re in a larger business, ask yourself:

• Are you creating these sheets for other people to use, or are you just managing data manually yourself?
• Have you separated your data from the analysis layer of your sheets?

If the answer to either of these questions is “No,” it might be time to rethink your approach.

Are they saying today’s Excel user needs to know 500 keyboard shortcuts?

There was a time when a London taxi driver had to know every street in London. They trained for years to acquire this knowledge. It was indeed known as The Knowledge. You couldn’t become a black cab driver without The Knowledge. Today, all that is superseded by Satellite Navigation. Excel too has evolved.

Manual Work vs. Process Automation

Imagine explaining to management that you spend your days deleting rows manually. In an ideal world, shouldn’t your work involve participating in a systemized, automated process? And if your job can be replaced by a shortcut, it might be time to rethink that job.

This whole Socratic exploration exposes a stark truth: People are often doing the wrong jobs with the wrong skills and wrong tools. Real Excel mastery means spotting these inefficiencies and knowing how to automate, systemize, and streamline processes—not memorizing shortcuts that delete rows.

And that’s precisely what Tripling Your Pay with Excel is about: identifying, presenting, and solving the inefficiencies lurking within outdated workflows. If you’re the person who can walk into a meeting and say, “Here’s what we’re doing wrong and how we could be saving time, money, and sanity,” you’ll be the one getting promoted.

Horse-Drawn Vans in an Amazon World

So next time someone is debating which shortcut deletes a row, remember: if you’re relying on deleting rows in the 21st century, you might be using a horse-drawn van for your Amazon deliveries.

This is a Podcast by Hiran de Silva. Narrated by Charlie.