There's something about Kate

If you’re concerned about Kate Middleton’s well-being and whereabouts, you’re not alone.

Not having made any public appearances since the beginning of the year has sparked all kinds of founded and unfounded rumors about Kate worldwide.

Has she been abandoned by her husband, Prince William? Has she had a botched facelift surgery? Is she in a coma? Perhaps she’s been abducted by aliens?

Nobody knows.

In an attempt to silence rumors and coinciding with Mother's Day in the UK, Kensington Palace published a candid photograph of the Princess of Wales and her 3 children.

But things haven't gone according to plan.

Turns out, the picture of Kate with her 3 children was heavily "photoshopped". Not only heavily "photoshopped", but clumsily "photoshopped".

Multiple edits have been identified in the picture:

An innocent picture intended to quell rumors and settle the dust about Kate's disappearance from the limelight has only unleashed a reputational crisis of unprecedented magnitude.

Even I, who have never been concerned about my own Spanish Borbones, let alone the British Windsors, have found myself asking questions about this story.

Such as...

• Knowing that a simple search on Fiverr returns tens of professional Photoshoppers able to do wonders on even the worst photos, why did the Royal Family decide to publish such a clumsily edited picture?

• Publishing the unedited picture would certainly help calm things down. Why do the Windsors not publish the original picture to prove that Kate is okay?

• Perhaps because she's not... What's going on with Kate?

And the most relevant question of all...

• How come people are so idle to spend their time on a hunt for Photoshop edits in Kate Middleton's pictures?

Anyway, onto spreadsheets and financial models.

Chances are, if you have been working with spreadsheets for some time, you'll have found yourself "photoshopping" your models at some point.

What do I mean by "photoshopping"?

Think about those times you had to draw a conclusion from a spreadsheet analysis. Or that result you had to back with some calculations. Or that data trend that was crucial for making a business decision.

But the numbers were stubborn and didn't quite add up to your will.

You decided to tweak the calculations a little bit.

You slightly modified a parameter here and there. Hardcoded that variable that didn't have too much weight on the result. Rounded down that number to hide that you had been tinkering with decimals.

After all, who will notice such innocent edits?

However, a word of caution.

Should your tweaks and edits be uncovered, you'll face a royal reputational crisis.

Your credibility will plummet.

And it will unleash many more questions than those you tried to avoid by "photoshopping" your spreadsheet in the first place.

Anyway, whoever is free from sin, let him cast the first stone...

I will certainly not cast any.

But the moral undoubtedly is...

Don't "photoshop" your spreadsheets.

Hey, don't feel bad if you have some financial modeling to do but you'd rather spend your time hunting for Photoshop edits on pictures of the Windsors.

Different strokes for different folks.

Just put aside the gossip magazine and the magnifying glass for a moment and drop me a line.

Financial modeling services.

P.S. I promise I will not “photoshop” any workbook.

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