
Be Choosy About What You Automate - johnnyb_61820
https://mindmatters.ai/2018/12/be-choosy-about-what-you-automate/
======
jungler
I basically use the same kind of hesitance around automation when making
programming decisions:

1\. Automate for spec and quality first(make it work, get it right, make it
fast)

2\. Add opt-outs(write to the limits of your debug system, apply the Principle
of Least Power, use common formats and protocols)

3\. Automate the easy parts first and limit scope(short build scripts, mockup
UI, placeholder systems, set scalability targets, etc.)

Software projects are ultimately about the full automation of a complex data
processing task. The difficulty is in learning enough about the problem and
knowing where to set boundaries. Writing software that "does anything" is one
of those philosophical black holes that is easy to fall into in small
increments, because the system can surely always do more, and you might have a
library that solves 90% of the problem...

