Anti-Pattern—a literary form that describes a commonly occurring solution to a problem that generates decidedly negative consequences
Let’s say we’ve got a spreadsheet of calculations created for our manager, who has asked for a list of SnackWorld sales numbers by month. We’ve used a series of complicated formulas to calculate these values based off of an external data table, and now we want to send our output to our manager. But, we don’t want to send those complicated formulas — our manager just wants to see our final numbers, not unnecessary information on how we got there.
Pasting As Values is an extremely common practice in the business world. Generally, analysts use Paste As Values on critical data before sending it off to managers for review. This helps ensure that a) the data sent does not unintentionally change if the recipient accidentally modifies source data; and b) the recipient of the spreadsheet doesn’t get distracted by complicated formulas, and instead pays attention to the numbers provided. (Source: )
There are many reasons for copying formula values. Sometimes you don’t want others to know how the result was derived. Other times, you just want to make it simpler and faster for users. This is particularly true if your spreadsheet calls external resources or spreadsheets. (Source: )
Doing the same thing over and over again and ignoring ways to scale.