There is a better way to count recurring dates, and it does not require a static list or complex formulas. The user who posted this question is asking something deceptively simple: how many times December 31st has occurred between a fixed past date and today. The frustration in the question is real. The solutions they found online assume a pre-typed range of dates, which breaks the moment the spreadsheet is opened tomorrow. That is not a user error. That is a tool limitation.
The formula that solves this is straightforward and works in any modern spreadsheet. You take the earlier date, subtract it from today, divide by 365, and round down. Then add one if the earlier date falls before or on December 31st of its own year. A cleaner version uses the DATEDIF function or the YEARFRAC function to count full years, then checks whether the later date has passed December 31st of the current year. Either way, the result updates automatically every time the file opens. The user does not need to maintain a list. They do not need to type anything new. The spreadsheet does the work.
What strikes us about this question is not the formula itself, but the assumption that a dynamic date calculation requires a workaround. That assumption comes from years of using tools that treat dates as static entries in a grid. The user is right to feel stuck. Traditional spreadsheets handle dates as fixed points, not as living relationships between now and then. That is why the online search results all pointed toward typed-out lists. The tools have trained users to think in rows and columns, not in time.
The solution is not a secret. It is a basic date arithmetic that any AI-native spreadsheet handles natively. When the tool understands that "today" is a variable, not a value, the user stops fighting the interface. They ask a question about time, and the spreadsheet answers in time. That is the shift. The user does not need to learn a new language or memorize functions. They need a tool that meets them where they are: asking about December 31st, today, and the years between. That is what we build for.