Automation is software. People get paid to work on it. Even 50 lines programs can have bugs. I prefer to minimize the work in the first place. I look for exi

Automation is software. People get paid to work on it. Even 50 lines programs can have bugs. I prefer to minimize the work in the first place. I look for existing tools that already have the automation I need. I look for alternative solutions if a process is going to have 50 steps. I use GUI programs like converseen for one off bulk conversion tasks. I make programs display the output people need right in the UI, rather than parsing the output with another automation. I use sqlite if I can, rather than automate the setup of postgresql or something. I'll avoid modules with some compile step outside the package manager when I can. I don't have backup scripts, I have back in time. I rarely use build scripts, I use IDEs. And I prefer languages that don't make building into a nightmare. Android Studio has "automation" built in. And when something does need automating, I have Ansible. Automation is custom software. I don't start new software projects without looking for alternatives.