Today's guest, Gustavo Miranda, started his career in a research adjacent Program Evaluation position using Power Pivot Slicers in a non-Power Pivot table before he was introduced and lured by the power of the Power Platform. He shares his story of how reducing friction and creating automation introduced even non-data people to the concept that data quality matters. Most importantly, though, today you will learn the underdog story of how Power Query saved Christmas during the Kronos Hack of 2021. Get the inside scoop from crisis meeting to crisis meeting until the moment when Gus stood up to save the day. While Gus did the heavy lifting, a task force soon formed to collectively finish the project. While other multi-million-dollar companies were paralyzed, shocked, and attempting to ad-hoc calculate payroll and vacations, often incorrectly, Gus's task force used Power Query to create an effective solution in time to prevent employees from missing Christmas with their families. Even Tom must agree that tales like this really show the power of Power Query's ETL abilities.

Also in today's episode, we learn the origin story of slicers in Excel, how Rob and Amir were behind their creation by seducing the Excel team, trading resources, and creating the opportunity for Microsoft to back into needing a separate application to maximize the impact of those slicers. That application? Power BI desktop. In an exciting tale of what could have been, we also hear the story of the Power BI canvas in Excel that was never meant to be as well as the lessons learned: never try to add truly new capabilities to Excel or you end up with Power View. As our friend Scott Esti used to say there are two kinds of people in the world, people who hate Power View and those who haven't used it!

All this and more on today's episode! Be sure to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform to help new listeners find us.

Also on this episode:

Nash Equilibrium / Prisoner's Delimma

The truth behind recycling

Program evaluation

He may only need his eyes checked ...

Calculation Groups in Power BI

Microsoft's Power View

Gilligan's Island theme song

Zeno's paradox

Gus's P3 Blog - Using Power Query to Transform and Combine Online Statscan Data

Matt Masson - Deep Dive Into the Power From the Language

Active v Inactive Relationships

Kronos hack disrupts payroll

Live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Live action Cat in the Hat

Abyss - Bomb at the bottom of the sea (Don't look Tom!)

Rumble in the Jungle George Foreman - Muhammad Ali

Guns and Roses – It's so easy

Blown Away – Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones Montage

Sankey (Diagram)

Fight Club - Corn Flower Blue

G Rated Fight Club