What? What are you using Jupyter notebooks for where you want maintenance? They should be records of data analysis/ procedures, not code that runs in production or something.
Maybe read the article. They are experimenting with putting the notebooks directly into production ala bash script. I don’t think this is a great idea either.
So what would you suggest a financial modeler, who has no experience of any programming environments, to use instead?
The value of Excel is that is a zero-config tool, available everywhere as 'standard' business installation, allows very quick iteration with visual output in certain range of tasks, is battle tested in millions of computers... etc. And everyone else is using it too.
For a programmer it's easy to suggest to just pick some good language. Once you know two programming languages you can navigate pretty soon fluently in third.
But picking up the first language fluency? That's hard. You can't just suggest to use python or such. You need to provide a tool that holds hands, has lots tutorials available etc.
Visual programming is not necessary the answer either. I've understood that without discipline LabView programs become actual visual spaghetti pretty quickly.
of course its hard. Just like its hard a new language thats is far from your native tongue. But we should not be scared of learning something difficult, because the returns are well worth the investment. There is only so much you can do in Excel and if you want to advance your career you need to move past it even if you have no programming background. Additionally, its never been easier than in 2018 to find free resources to learn. The only things you need are awareness, time, and will.
