This newsletter will, literally, change very little
‘Automation’ is one of those words that sets me on edge. Maybe it’s because my brain immediately associates it with a high-speed production line: whirring machinery, products flying past at pace, mechanical stuff that I don’t really understand.
Equally possible is that I’ve grown suspicious of anything that promises to effortlessly knock my work or life into better shape. Automation sounds simple – “take some repetitive, manual tasks and let a computer take care of them!” – but in practice is often convoluted, needs careful planning, and takes a while for meaningful results to show.
There’s undoubtedly a case for chopping out the slow, repetitive, and costly parts of the things we work on or make use of. But like any solution to a problem, if benefits get oversold or the end product is badly implemented, the consequences can be problematic.
Take two examples at opposite ends of the scale: an automated camera system repeatedly mistakes a linesman’s bald head for the football, and the automated process for recording positive Covid tests pushes Excel way beyond its limits. One results in annoyed/amused Inverness Caley Thistle and Ayr United fans, the other has potential life or death consequences.
Mistakes happen, and it would be hard to question the intent behind either of the above instances (particularly in the maelstrom of delivering solutions during the pandemic), but they’re both based on the presumption that automation = efficiency = better.
I find elements of the rhetoric in this area troubling. There’s a very specific sub-culture – life hackers, productivity gurus, big tech – driving a message that suggests practically everything is automatable and that the time to act is NOW.
When I occasionally tune into the nasal whine of the pasty-faced males my kids gravitate towards on YouTube, a lot of the content focuses on shortcutting processes or gaming the system in some way. Instant gratification is a cornerstone of smug bro culture, and smug bros are shaping the language of the automation space.
…hacks prop up the myth of the meritocracy. The promise that makes them so attractive is that you can tweak your way to the top, if you just employ enough micro-strategies.
The direct connection between videos that tell me about Insane-iPhone-Hacks-That-Will-Rock-My-World and new, innovative ways to make a business thrive may seem tenuous, but I’d argue that the undercurrent of ‘tweaking your way to the top’ is baked into both. My LinkedIn feed is awash with posts telling me how to generate prompts, seamlessly improve my team’s cadence, or buy old products with a new AI twist.
I don’t intend this to be a diatribe against automation – far from it. There are lots of examples of Good Automation (sung in the style of Sade) out there, and my digital career would have been fairly short-lived if I didn’t think technology could play a huge role in improving people’s lives.
But if we only see positive outcomes of automation without considering some of the questionable values that are driving it, there’s a risk of removing the essential human components that made the thing possible in the first place.
Life, after all, isn’t a high-speed production line.
🎧 Fitter, Happier, More Productive
This episode of Helen Lewis’s excellent The New Gurus podcast is frequently amusing and revelatory. The discussion with productivity gurus struggling to keep pace with the demands of content creation is particularly telling, and Lewis also delves into the more troublesome aspects of the culture.
😲 AI in the Workplace: New Crisis or Longstanding Challenge
I’ve found Emily Bender to be one of the few remaining reasons to spend time on X, and her observations have already caught the eye of Dan Hon’s essential Things That Caught My Attention newsletter this week. Here she argues that the term ‘AI’ obfuscates what are essentially different types of automation, and that obsfucation contributes to a narrative where AI is perceived as being “too exotic to be regulatable”.
📀 The high tech behind Netflix’s old-school DVD service
Good automation! Lovefilm completely changed the way I watched and thought about films. The ability to receive DVDs by post felt completely liberating compared to trudging around Blockbuster, and suddenly exploring different genres, directors, and boxsets was a mouseclick away. When I transitioned from ordering Breaking Bad by post to watching it on Netflix, I really wasn’t aware of the seismic shift that was taking place.
In the U.S., Netflix started out by offering the equivalent disc-by-mail service 25 years ago. As the service is wound down, this article reveals the cutting edge, continuously improving tech that has kept it fine-tuned.
🕞 Why time management is ruining our lives
This Guardian Long Read is from 2016, but still holds up. It’s got lots of examples of the pressures and dark forces behind the push for productivity, and some very good snark to counter any Inbox Zero zealots in your life.
👋 Bye for now
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