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”.
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”.