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Automation is not just about saving time. It’s also about saving a “recipe” for a task, about avoiding human error, and about staying in the flow. I automated

by nicbou 4y ago

Automation is not just about saving time. It’s also about saving a “recipe” for a task, about avoiding human error, and about staying in the flow. I automated logging into my website’s admin area to edit a post. Now I type “edit” in the address bar. I must have used that shortcut a thousand times in 2022. P I have another that cd into a project and launch the dev environment. Same deal. If you get sidetracked a lot, automation is critical. It’s our industry’s equivalent to mise en place. Deal with the drudgery in advance to focus on your work when it matters.

greatNespresso 4y ago
> I automated logging into my website’s admin area to edit a post. Now I type “edit” in the address bar. I must have used that shortcut a thousand times in 2022. Cool !! Maybe one of the best illustration of a frequent task indeed!
alexdowad 4y ago
What browser do you use? How do you create shortcuts which can be accessed by typing in the address bar?
- jo1gi 4y ago
  In firefox you can give a bookmark a keyword that you can then write in the address bar to open it. It can also be used for adding search engines.
  - bmacho 4y ago
    That bookmark can be a bookmarklet/javascript as well, so you can run commands typing in the address bar and hitting enter.
    - Noumenon72 4y ago
      I've used both things but never considered combining them. Very clever.
  - nicbou 4y ago
    That's exactly it. A Javascript bookmarklet with an assigned keyword ("edit").
    - swyx 4y ago
      care to share it so i can crib off of you? oddly enough i write javascript all the time but never ever really got comfortable writing "bookmarklets"...
      - nicbou 4y ago
        This is the code: javascript:void(window.open(document.querySelector('head%20%3E%20link%5Brel=edit%5D').href,%20%20'_blank')); It relies on the page having a <link> tag with the URL to the admin panel.
  - tpmx 4y ago
    You can abuse the Chrome custom Site Search feature to achieve the same. You don't have to use the %s argument substitution thing.
    - Noumenon72 4y ago
      I do this without %s to go to dev, qa, or prod: ad/aq/ap for Airflow, kd/kq/kp for Keycloak. I also started using custom searches for every new technology. I know I'm going to be googling "kubernetes foo" or "Elasticsearch bar" 1000 times in my life, so I just make a "k8" or "es" search engine right from the start. Also "diff %s" for "difference between".
yamasanama 4y ago
> It’s our industry’s equivalent to mise en place. What an excellent comparison! Thanks!
maliker 4y ago
I think it’s fair to say that in the age of the internet, everyone is sidetracked all the time. Another thing I like about automation is that it lets you think bigger thoughts. If I have to go in and tweak a report in Excel, I’m only going to have time to do the bare minimum to get the result I need. But if I load it into pandas, some additional analysis is only a single command away, so I’ll probably do it. And with the rise of AI tools like chatGPT, I don’t even have to remember the commands, I just ask the AI “hey, come up with a forecast for this variable”.
NGRhodes 4y ago
Worth reading about Autonomation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomation), which originated in Toyota. "Autonomation aims to prevent the production of defective products, eliminate overproduction and focus attention on understanding the problems and ensuring that they do not reoccur. "
- nicbou 4y ago
  Yep. I was really into the TPS a while ago, and autonomation is a concept that stuck with me.
tikhonj 4y ago
> I have another that cd into a project and launch the dev environment. I have this set up with direnv[1] and it's incredibly useful, especially with Emacs integration. Not only does it reduce the cognitive burden of keeping track of whether I've opened a venv/launched a nix shell/etc, but it also prevents time-wasting mistakes like launching the wrong version of an interpreter or compiler. [1]: https://direnv.net/ https://direnv.net/
- actinium226 4y ago
  I guess my solution to this problem is not very popular - I try to keep my dev environment simple enough that I don't need venv or anything like that. I find that venv or docker adds cognitive load that then needs more tools to unload, like direnv. So if my devenv gets too complicated I try to simplify it. Seems like a logical solution to me but often I run into people who simply don't believe me that it makes things simpler. :shrug:
  - nicbou 4y ago
    At some point your code has dependencies that call for this.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    > I guess my solution to this problem is not very popular - I try to keep my dev environment simple enough that I don't need venv or anything like that. I find that venv or docker adds cognitive load that then needs more tools to unload, like direnv. Good for you but this doesn't work in most scenarios, especially if you work in a company with a build process.
- codemonkey-zeta 4y ago
  I'm really interested in setting this up also. Can you briefly explain how you set this up with direnv? Looks like that's just for loading environment files, not launching processes?
  - ywei3410 4y ago

by nicbou 4y ago

greatNespresso 4y ago

> I automated logging into my website’s admin area to edit a post. Now I type “edit” in the address bar. I must have used that shortcut a thousand times in 2022. Cool !! Maybe one of the best illustration of a frequent task indeed!

alexdowad 4y ago

What browser do you use? How do you create shortcuts which can be accessed by typing in the address bar?

jo1gi 4y ago
In firefox you can give a bookmark a keyword that you can then write in the address bar to open it. It can also be used for adding search engines.
- bmacho 4y ago
  That bookmark can be a bookmarklet/javascript as well, so you can run commands typing in the address bar and hitting enter.
  - Noumenon72 4y ago
    I've used both things but never considered combining them. Very clever.
- nicbou 4y ago
  That's exactly it. A Javascript bookmarklet with an assigned keyword ("edit").
  - swyx 4y ago
    care to share it so i can crib off of you? oddly enough i write javascript all the time but never ever really got comfortable writing "bookmarklets"...
    - nicbou 4y ago
      This is the code: javascript:void(window.open(document.querySelector('head%20%3E%20link%5Brel=edit%5D').href,%20%20'_blank')); It relies on the page having a <link> tag with the URL to the admin panel.
- tpmx 4y ago
  You can abuse the Chrome custom Site Search feature to achieve the same. You don't have to use the %s argument substitution thing.
  - Noumenon72 4y ago
    I do this without %s to go to dev, qa, or prod: ad/aq/ap for Airflow, kd/kq/kp for Keycloak. I also started using custom searches for every new technology. I know I'm going to be googling "kubernetes foo" or "Elasticsearch bar" 1000 times in my life, so I just make a "k8" or "es" search engine right from the start. Also "diff %s" for "difference between".

yamasanama 4y ago

> It’s our industry’s equivalent to mise en place. What an excellent comparison! Thanks!

maliker 4y ago

I think it’s fair to say that in the age of the internet, everyone is sidetracked all the time. Another thing I like about automation is that it lets you think bigger thoughts. If I have to go in and tweak a report in Excel, I’m only going to have time to do the bare minimum to get the result I need. But if I load it into pandas, some additional analysis is only a single command away, so I’ll probably do it. And with the rise of AI tools like chatGPT, I don’t even have to remember the commands, I just ask the AI “hey, come up with a forecast for this variable”.

NGRhodes 4y ago

Worth reading about Autonomation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomation), which originated in Toyota. "Autonomation aims to prevent the production of defective products, eliminate overproduction and focus attention on understanding the problems and ensuring that they do not reoccur. "

nicbou 4y ago
Yep. I was really into the TPS a while ago, and autonomation is a concept that stuck with me.

tikhonj 4y ago

> I have another that cd into a project and launch the dev environment. I have this set up with direnv[1] and it's incredibly useful, especially with Emacs integration. Not only does it reduce the cognitive burden of keeping track of whether I've opened a venv/launched a nix shell/etc, but it also prevents time-wasting mistakes like launching the wrong version of an interpreter or compiler. [1]: https://direnv.net/ https://direnv.net/

actinium226 4y ago
I guess my solution to this problem is not very popular - I try to keep my dev environment simple enough that I don't need venv or anything like that. I find that venv or docker adds cognitive load that then needs more tools to unload, like direnv. So if my devenv gets too complicated I try to simplify it. Seems like a logical solution to me but often I run into people who simply don't believe me that it makes things simpler. :shrug:
- nicbou 4y ago
  At some point your code has dependencies that call for this.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  > I guess my solution to this problem is not very popular - I try to keep my dev environment simple enough that I don't need venv or anything like that. I find that venv or docker adds cognitive load that then needs more tools to unload, like direnv. Good for you but this doesn't work in most scenarios, especially if you work in a company with a build process.
codemonkey-zeta 4y ago
I'm really interested in setting this up also. Can you briefly explain how you set this up with direnv? Looks like that's just for loading environment files, not launching processes?
- ywei3410 4y ago