On building / By Sunny
Start with the task. Then pick the tool.
Why a useful first workflow begins with something ordinary.
It is easy to get excited about a new automation tool and then search for something to do with it. I want to approach the work in the other direction: notice a task that repeats, understand it, and only then choose a tool.
A good starting question is: what information goes in, what should come out, and where does a person still need to decide? Writing those three things down can make a vague idea much smaller.
For my own learning, I want the first version to do one useful thing. A folder organised consistently or a spreadsheet updated correctly can teach more than a large system that never quite works.
The point is to finish a small loop: build, try it, notice what fails, and improve it. More complex tools can wait until the problem actually needs them.
Always learning.Sunny