My first steps into automating knowledge sharing
31 Dec 2024I’ve been saying, “I’ve been coding for over ten years.” for more than a decade now (so yeah, I've been coding for a long time). And I still love it.
Coding feels like a deeply creative process to me. It’s about long-term problem-solving and crafting elegant solutions. But it's also about diving into the nitty-gritty and getting your hands dirty. I take pride in writing clean, maintainable code, but also in finding a clever hack to glue everything together.
The one thing that I never found fun are the repetitive tasks. They’re fun the first time but quickly become tedious after the tenth. I think that's for hat reason that I’ve always been fascinated by automation. Recently, after attending the dotAI conference, I saw the incredible potential of AI and automation tools, which pulled me into yet another rabbit hole.
Make is the new Zapier
Of course, I've already automated most of my code-oriented tasks, using tools like CircleCI or Netlify/Vercel/Cloudflare functions. Those tools are great, but they fall short when the task to automate requires some UI (like getting data from a website, automatically downloading invoices from your emails, etc).
For those tasks, I had tried tools like IFTTT and Zapier in the past. I found IFTTT a genius idea the first time I used it, but its functionality was quite limited. Zapier, while more advanced, felt similar and quickly became prohibitively expensive. So, I came back once again to my custom bash and JavaScript scripts.
But then, Make happened. I gave it a try and it has completely changed how I approach automation. Make combines the best of IFTTT and Zapier with a much more intuitive UI, powerful debugging tools, and is way cheaper. It’s incredibly versatile, allowing me to complete projects in an afternoon that I’d postponed for years. Every day, I experience "wow" moments as I connect this API and that API to automate stuff I didn't think I could automate. Make feels like a superpower, I'm feeling that exhilarating feeling of "I can do anything!" just like the first time I started coding.
More wow effects
If Make can replace much of my need for scripting, Airtable has given me a similar “wow” effect for data management. Airtable is an incredibly powerful database with a clean UI that makes it easy to view, edit, and manipulate data visually. I can create formulas, so one field is derived from another, link tables together, upload files directly in tables, build visual custom interfaces to show specific data. Everything is of course accessible through the API... and through Make; double "wow" effect!
And then you can even plug ChatGPT in Make, to enrich data you have in Airtable, and dynamically transform it. Triple "wow" effect. And since I've started to discover this strange new world of "no-code automation", I'm discovering more and more of those awesome tools every day. I keep being amazed at how powerful and accessible they’ve become.
Posting more here
I started this blog many years ago, when I started to learn web development, and I used it as a platform to share what I learned. I think it's only fitting if today, I use what I learn in the realm of no-code automation to post more here, and post more about what I learn, and use what I learn to post more.
I know I have ideas worth sharing. My thought process is that if I, after 20 years of experience, am still learning new things, I'm sure others can learn from them too. This blog is a modest platform, but it’s a way to connect with you, readers, and contribute to the pool of shared knowledge. Just as my coding skills allowed me to build and customize this site many years ago, I hope my growing expertise in automation will help me bring more meaningful content to it.
Hope to see you soon, once I've posted more!
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