Repetitive task-management

I found an old but nice post about Geeks and repetitive tasks by Jon Udell.
It starts with quoting a Google+ post by Bruno Oliveira.

The other day Tim Bray tweeted a Google+ item entitled Geeks and repetitive tasks along with the comment: “Geeks win, eventually.”
Here’s the chart posted on Google+ by Bruno Oliveira:

Udell comments:

But the chart also fails to capture the reality of repetition and automation in the realm of information systems.

and adds his own version:

Excellent.
The good thing about some blogs are the comments, like this one by Tom West:

If we’re defining geek as it’s archetype, then it’s essentially a tendency towards systematizing.

I love to systematize.:-)

Okay, back to the main topic, repetitive tasks and how to deal with them. “Boredom and drudgery are evil”, wrote E. S. Raymond. Creative people will always try to find a way to do it smarter and save time to solve new and more interesting problems.

The question is: who is the smartest, the geek or the non-geek? The last graph shows that the non-geek can lean back and wait until the geek has done the hard work – coding – and has written or found a script for automation. In a way, that’s smart too, because he can still use the gold, without digging for it.

I think that non-geeks only have less fun. At least they must have a very low self-esteem.

 

 

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  • The Aesthetics and Beauty of Knowledge

    Shih was the opposite of facts and raw information; shih was the elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses colours or light to make her pictures, a master of shih chooses textures of knowledge – various ideas, myths, abstractions, and theories – to create a way of seeing the world. The aesthetics and beauty of knowledge – this was shih.

    – David Zindell, The Broken God, 1993

  • Geek Attitude

    The attitude thing is about flexibility, portability, creativity, sociability and jamming (ran out of suitable “ity” words!). It’s about improvising – in the practical and musical senses of the word; not getting tangled in boundaries and the “right” way to do things.
    Definitely the only way to travel.
    Martin Delaney – “Laptop Music”.