Financier Ariel Fishman of the United States now owns the world's largest collection of physical media containing spreadsheet software — his archive has already surpassed 1,000 items, the website infohub.kz reports.
The collector's unusual hobby began after he set out to study the history of the format in detail. The first such program, called VisiCalc, was created in 1978 by graduates Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, who sought to automate complex mathematical calculations.
According to Fishman, the advent of spreadsheets fundamentally changed how people interact with data and saves humanity billions of working hours every year.
In 2018, Guinness World Records officially certified that he had 506 unique boxes and disks of software. Since then, the collection has grown and now exceeds 1,000 items.
Among the owner's rare finds are three copies of T.H.E Spreadsheet, written by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, as well as two early beta versions of Excel released before the product's official launch.
Outsiders often help the enthusiast expand his archive. In a past interview, he mentioned that he had long been unable to find the version of Excel 2001 for Mac. After the article was published, a former Apple developer who had taken part in creating that version contacted him and sent him his personal box with the disk free of charge.
The record holder himself admits that he uses spreadsheets for absolutely all of his everyday tasks.