Excel, Word or PowerPoint?

I am constantly on the hunt for metaphors for MRE energies to help communicate MRE and help people quickly hone in on their own core. For example, Spock/McCoy/Kirk from Star Trek and Scarecrow/Tinman/Lion from Wizard of Oz.

A recent conversation with Bootstrap Artist Hank Waddell, uncovered an obvious metaphor hiding in plain sight. Hank was explaining how he created elaborate spreadsheets to manage construction jobs before he became a full-time artist. Indeed, in the book (chapter 2) we had discussed how Mavens love tools that help them organize the world and create elaborate models. A spreadsheet like Excel, with its ordered columns and rows serves Mavens perfectly. Indeed, Excel and its precursors, VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3, were the first "killer apps" in the early days of PCs.

As I was listening to Hank, it struck me that the triad, is indeed complete:

Relaters gravitate to Word because it allows for subjective and nuanced expression. Of the three modes, writing is best at capturing emotion, whether through poetry or prose.

Evangelists (myself included) love PowerPoint, which allows them to communicate the essence of concepts but not get bogged down in the details.

This gives us a surprisingly easy and fun diagnostic for core energy: do you like Excel, Word or PowerPoint?!