For proper formatting (bold, italics, etc.) and graphics (where applicable) see the PDF version. Copyright: 2020 Retraice, Inc.

Ma14: Dilemmas of Automation

Margin by Retraice1

On what, when and how to automate work.

Air date: Friday, 13th Nov. 2020, 3 : 05 PM Pacific/US.

A tough decision

Deciding whether to automate depends on circumstances and estimating costs and benefits in time and money.

"The only way to go fast, is to go well."2

It's usually true, these days, that mindless tasks can be automated—if you can afford the time and money necessary to make it happen.

The dilemma

Automation is not just a switch you can flip—even if the sales guy says it is.

Our needs

In order to produce the chapters (time codes) for our show notes, we have to do a lot of slicing and dicing of text. Converting this process into a find/replace procedure using regular expressions made it clear that we were very close to using a computer program to do this.

Side note: for now, let's use the word 'process' to refer to a mental or physical set of steps, and a 'procedure' as an imperfect model or description of a process (in the form of a machine, or writing or code, etc.) that is constructed for purposes of automation. We can almost justify these technical definitions by citing Abelson, Sussman and Sussman.3

Below is a working series of find-replace steps. The input is a text file generated by our audio mastering (with chapters) process, and the output is the 'Chapters' and 'DETAILS' sections of our show notes. The [\s] stands for a single space, and 'null' stands for no character. All the other special characters are manually entered directly into Sublime's find-replace tool, which accepts 'regular expression' code. This is less efficient than using our custom-built spreadsheet that produces the same output in fewer steps, but unlike the spreadsheet, this procedure lends itself to programming. The output of this procedure has been checked on this segment (Ma14), character for character, against our manual spreadsheet process output. However, it's likely that bugs will be discovered over time, as future segments produce different input for the procedure.

Figure 1: * A manual find-replace procedure using 'regular expressions' code. Our programming experience

We've written a few programs in C, and one or two other languages. But most of the work of learning to code, we think, is in clearing out the garbage thoughts that we absorb from bad explanations and popular culture, and then avoiding those who would put in more garbage.

Kinds of automation

Hardware: a microphone boom automates the holding-in-place of the microphone.

Software: a light-switch (more controversially) automates the transmission of power through, or not-through, a circuit. This transmission (or not) of power can also be used to send and receive information (think Morse code). Perhaps a light-switch is not quite software, but see Petzold4, Nisan and Schocken5, and Scott6 for how gray this area is.

Wetware: A brain, when it is slavishly following a procedure such as a checklist, is wetware automated.

The cost and the benefit

In our case, the setup is the cost. We can pay someone who has the automation already (or has the means to build it), or roll our own. The benefit is the time we would yield and then put to better use.

Relief and reliability

The primary appeals of automation, in our case, are: relief from drudgery, and the peace of mind of knowing that computers don't make mistakes.

Friday

We have no sage advice for you at this time.

References

Abelson, H., Sussman, G. J., & Sussman, J. (1996). Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. MIT, 2nd ed. ISBN: 978-0262510875. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0262510875 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0262510875 https://lccn.loc.gov/96017756

Martin, R. (2018). Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design. Prentice Hall. ISBN: 978-0134494166. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0134494166 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0134494166 https://lccn.loc.gov/2017945537

Nisan, N., & Schocken, S. (2005). The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles. MIT. ISBN: 978-0262640688. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0262640688 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0262640688 https://lccn.loc.gov/2005042807

Petzold, C. (2000). Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. Microsoft Press. ISBN: 978-0735611313. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0735611313 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0735611313 https://lccn.loc.gov/99040198

Scott, J. C. (2009). But How Do It Know? The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone. John C. Scott. ISBN: 978-0615303765. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0615303765 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0615303765

1https://www.retraice.com/margin

2Martin (2018) p. xviii.

3Abelson et al. (1996) pp. xi and 4.

4Petzold (2000) p. 32 ff.

5Nisan & Schocken (2005) p. 11.

6Scott (2009) pp. 19-20.