Task Automation Debate

This cluster debates the merits and drawbacks of automating repetitive tasks versus doing them manually, questioning when automation adds value, frees up time for human strengths, or leads to unnecessary complexity.

➡️ Stable 0.7x Career & Jobs
5,129
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7277
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Activity Over Time

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Keywords

AI TL BS CI ERP CSV DR CD MI automate automation automating process automated erp processes humans task tasks

Sample Comments

ihaveahadron Jan 6, 2017 View on HN

What automated processes could be done better manually by a competent person?

francispedraza Sep 2, 2013 View on HN

Next time, don't do something automate-able. You're a human, remember? Do things that only humans can do.

softcactus Apr 3, 2022 View on HN

Curious why you think this. Do you not believe there is some value in automation of certain tasks?

vsareto Jun 13, 2023 View on HN

Or don't automate it and enjoy the extra slack time

baby-yoda Jan 19, 2022 View on HN

at an internship in college (large consumer electronics company) one of my daily tasks was to take an export from the ERP system, format it in a specific way, save it to a shared drive and email to a few different people. it was really repetitive, fairly simplistic and the report from the ERP was very consistent.after about 2 weeks of doing this every day i thought there had to be a way to automate it, so I did. i set the ERP report to be emailed to me, set an email rule to save attachment to

MartinCron Apr 1, 2014 View on HN

You can automate things to free humans up to do what only humans are good at.

unethical_ban Aug 20, 2021 View on HN

If you can't do something right, don't automate it, I suppose.

sadmann1 May 26, 2020 View on HN

The hardest things to automate are always the things that are so easy for us they don't even register consciously

Attrecomet Nov 10, 2022 View on HN

"Before we automate it, we should think about if we can avoid doing the task altogether" is a red flag to you?

chitowneats Aug 14, 2021 View on HN

Not everything is meant to be automated.