Principle: Automate everything you do more than twice

Repetitive manual tasks waste developer time, introduce human error, and create bottlenecks when key people are unavailable.

The Rule of Three: Automate by the third time:

1. First time: Do it manually, learn the process
2. Second time: Do it manually, note the steps
3. Third time: Automate it

High-value automation targets:

• Code formatting/linting (pre-commit hooks)
• Testing (CI pipeline)
• Deployment (CD pipeline)
• Database migrations (migration tools)
• Environment setup (Docker, scripts)
• Dependency updates (Dependabot, Renovate)
• Release notes (conventional commits + changelog)
• Certificate renewal (Let's Encrypt auto-renewal)

Automation principles:

• Idempotent: safe to run multiple times
• Documented: README explains what it does
• Tested: automation that breaks is worse than manual
• Gradual: automate the most painful part first
• Observable: logs what it did

Don't automate:

• One-time tasks
• Tasks that need human judgment
• Things that change frequently (script will be outdated)
• Security-critical decisions (human approval needed)

Return on investment:

• 5 min task done 5x/week = 21 hours/year saved
• Even partial automation (template, checklist) helps

Manual repetition is expensive, error-prone, and demoralizing. Automation frees developers for creative work and eliminates human error.