A very clever developer once asked me, “If you knew the molecular structure of wine would it taste any better?”
I said that – like many people – although I appreciate learning how wine is crafted, I don’t care much about the molecular structure. In the end, what I wanted was to enjoy the wine with my meal.
Similarly, XBRL as a technology will enable a number of process transformations, but each of those will be front-ended by purpose-built software; the technical aspects of XBRL are certainly interesting, but only for the right audience. End users will enjoy these benefits relative to the ease of using data within the context of their own work.
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