[HN Gopher] Automate the boring parts of your job
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       Automate the boring parts of your job
        
       Author : tybulewicz
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2022-07-25 15:58 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (stackoverflow.blog)
 (TXT) w3m dump (stackoverflow.blog)
        
       | yarg wrote:
       | It actually amazes me the degree to which people just don't
       | realise that what they are doing can be automated - even in
       | software companies.
       | 
       | I caught my manager one day, manually traversing application
       | screens taking screenshots and then clipping them down to size.
       | 
       | At least an hours work, with each and every release (or at least
       | those with configuration changes).
       | 
       | "Raise a ticket, I can do that automatically."
       | 
       | An hour later I sent her back the task for testing - now taking
       | mere seconds, and with pixel perfect clipping.
       | 
       | It never even occurred to her to ask if that was something I
       | could do.
        
       | tybulewicz wrote:
       | Obligatory XKCDs:
       | 
       | - Is It Worth The Time? https://xkcd.com/1205/
       | 
       | - Automation https://xkcd.com/1319/
        
         | jt2190 wrote:
         | XKCD 1319 gets the economics of automation wrong because it
         | makes the assumption that you value the time spent on every
         | activity the same, in particular that you equally value drudge
         | work and programming.
         | 
         | The reality (for me at least, and I'm sure for others) is that
         | I'd much rather be writing a program than doing drudge work.
        
         | ozim wrote:
         | That is why I went for totally stupid-silly automations.
         | 
         | I don't write "reusable" automations - I don't write scripts
         | with parameters. I write a lot of scripts where I open it in
         | notepad to edit and fill in variables.
         | 
         | Most of the times I just put copies of these scripts on
         | specific servers and have variables filled in.
         | 
         | Variables need to change only if I change server or really
         | change config of a server which is almost never.
         | 
         | This way "Automation" xkcd "Theory" fits reality.
         | 
         | Because then instead of rehearsing commands and what was the
         | configuration I just go to the server and run the script and
         | instead 30mins simple task takes me 2 mins.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-25 23:02 UTC)