Hi

(Listen to this newsletter - AI Generated)

Tomorrow I start sending you AI and automation workflows that you can implement. Before that happens, you need to know a few things.

My first job after earning my engineering degree was in a research lab. It involved working with some very cool miniature manufacturing setups. I was part of a team that tested whether a new polycarbonate formulation could be produced commercially. (Sounds complex, and it was.)

The coolest part of the job was that machines and lab equipment did all the work. We waited around for results and loaded samples and chemicals as required.

Computers are dumb

Then, I got pulled into another department, still in research. It was a desk job involving patents, literature, strategies, competitive landscapes, and so on.

Suddenly, it felt like I was chained to the laptop all the time.

That machine didn't do anything by itself.

I had to do everything, open multiple Excel sheets, perform analysis, create presentations, write reports, and so on.

That was the starting point of my quest to free up my time. It was the desperate need to save myself from drowning in minutiae that led me down the deep rabbit hole of "Automation."

Why is Caps Lock there?

I know why it's there.

We rarely use it.

A waste of hardware and space.

Caps Lock was the first thing I repurposed for automation. There were some scripts that converted the Caps Lock key into a floating desktop search bar. This search bar allowed you to open files, programs, folders, and even run some scripts. (This was in 2006 on a generic Windows laptop.)

The next step was to automate Excel. I learned how to create macros and let the machine do some work for a change.

That led to Python scripts and a bunch of other adventures.

The reason I narrated this story was to assure you that I have been lazy for a long time. Like any other self-respecting lazy person, I have done my level best to automate as much of my work as possible.

I have never damaged a computer (at least not beyond repair 😅)

Where do we start?

We live in an incredible time. LLM technology is taking off, making it easier than ever to automate many aspects of the work we do on a computer. You don't need to learn programming to automate. Between AI and APIs, a large chunk of our work can be automated.

The possibilities are endless, limited only by your imagination.

Email me issues you face in your day-to-day work that you feel should be automated. I will automate it for you. The only condition is that you allow me to share it in this newsletter.

Tomorrow, I'll reveal how AI is used in writing this newsletter.

(No, it's not written by AI.)

Best

Anoop Kurup

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