I was asked to take part in a breakfast panel discussion at the 2008 Summit on ‘automation’ or something like that. I had never done such a thing before but figured ‘how hard can it be to sit there, eat some bacon, and answer some questions’? Turns out it can be harder than you think, especially when you are given the first question, by someone you have never actually met, and you aren’t prepared, and your mouth is full, and you were busy tweeting with audience members when the moderator turns to you and says:
“Tom, why do you automate things in your shop?”
I wasn’t really prepared for the question. So I decided to just be truthful and answer the question. So, with all honesty I said:
“Uhhh…because I like to sleep? Is that a good enough reason?”
The moderator? It was Allen White (blog | @sqlrunr). He looked confused, and not very amused. Not by me, and I am certain my tweeting didn’t help either. But hey, I’d rather be honest than liked, it’s just who I am. I don’t think Allen knew much about me but after a few rounds of questions I think he warmed up to us.
Then again, since I’ve never been asked back to participate in another seminar…perhaps he (and a certain company that rhymes with breast) had seen enough.
Then again, I’ve gotta be me, right Allen?
I don’t really see anything wrong with that answer. It’s right up there with “I’m lazy. I don’t want to do extra work if I don’t have to.” I can’t think of too many other answers to that question. We automate so we don’t have to do tasks that can be automated. It frees our time to work on tasks that cannot be automated.