I spent years watching developers copy-paste the same deployment steps, manually merge similar PRs, and run identical database queries every single day. The worst part? Most of them knew it was wasteful but had no system for fixing it.
Here's what I learned: automation isn't about having fancy tools. It's about identifying which tasks actually deserve automation, then picking the right approach for each one.
The Three Questions Before You Automate
Ask these before touching any tool or script:
Does this task happen more than twice a month? If it's monthly or less, manual might be fine.
