I was reading Mitch’s post on extrinsic rewards https://blogsatcarondelet.blogspot.com/2019/08/extrinsic-motivation-it-might-be-even.html? and I started to think what motivates me to learn?  I have already written about my belief that loving to read is the single most important contributor to my lifelong learning.  I have gained knowledge ( and wisdom and empathy).

But this is another post about another of my motivators. I don’t know if this is ex- or in- trinsic.  I identify myself as lazy.  I search for the short cut, the easier way in just about everything I do.  I avoid two trips by carrying too big a load; I consider if one stairway is shorter; I learn how to do things so I can avoid doing other things. So, laziness motivates me to learn.

I learned Excel as a lazy person avoiding data entry.  And I discovered I like the excitement (another one of my motivators) and the efficiency of those formulas. I consider the formula VLOOKUP  to be just as much a magic spell as wingardium leviosa.

PowerSchool and Schoology use a slightly different unique identifier for each student. Schoology’s identifier is based on PowerSchool but adds a text qualifier.  And Schoology reports sometimes will only let you download with that unique identifier, not our school id.  It takes a third party to correlate some Schoology and PowerSchool information.  And who is that third party?  Me.  And my Excel formula friend VLookup. Years ago, I had a similar problem with much less data.  I could have done that batch by hand, but I knew there had to be a way to do it with Excel.  I Googled around, stumbled upon tutorials about VLookup and was on my way.  That first and second and maybe even third time, I probably spent more time on Excel than I would have by hand   But now? Payoff time!

Right now, I have been thinking, there has to be something easier. Maybe its time to level up!   Learning how to manipulate systems so a task is easier is at the root of so much coding.