About fifteen years ago, I set up a student rental website at the behest of the rental management. The list of things they wanted to automate, even then, was a

About fifteen years ago, I set up a student rental website at the behest of the rental management. The list of things they wanted to automate, even then, was astonishing. I have seen this in other situations and it has led to a kind of maxim for me -- never underestimate the number of people who think that you can automate their jobs on their behalf and that they will still have those jobs at the end of the process. I don't like putting people out of work but that bit about replacing someone with a shell script is not entirely inaccurate at times.