Lightning Talk Beginner None First Talk

When Automation becomes Procrastination

Review Pending

Session Description

As developers, we often reach for a familiar solution when a workflow feels inefficient: write a script, build a dashboard, connect an API, or automate the entire process.

These approaches can be valuable. They can also introduce hidden costs like development time, maintenance, debugging, brittle integrations, security concerns, and the temptation to keep improving the system instead of completing the original task.

This talk examines that tension through the lens of developer productivity and personal automation. The starting point is a familiar challenge: balancing work with technical learning, career preparation, and personal projects while looking for ways to make the process more efficient.

Rather than treating automation as an unquestionable good, we'll explore how to identify the actual bottleneck, estimate the total cost of a solution, and decide whether a script, an existing open-source tool, a simpler process, or no automation at all is the right choice.

The session will introduce a practical evaluation framework and a small experiment comparing a simple manual workflow with a more elaborate automated alternative. It will also discuss the trade-offs involved in maintaining custom tooling, integrating external services, and building on a Linux desktop.

The goal is not to discourage automation or experimentation. It is to make both more intentional.

Attendees will leave with a repeatable method for evaluating automation ideas, practical examples of engineering trade-offs, and a framework they can apply to their own development workflows.

Key Takeaways

By the end of this talk, attendees will be able to :
- Distinguish a genuine workflow bottleneck from an inconvenience that does not justify custom software
- Estimate the total cost of automation, including development, maintenance and failure recovery
- Design a small experiment to evaluate whether an automation actually saves time
- Recognise when technical exploration is creating value and when it is distracting from the intended outcome

References

https://N/A

Session Categories

Engineering practice - productivity, debugging

Other

Talk License: None

Speakers

Naitik Singhal Software Engineer | VGN IT Craftsmen Solution

Naitik Singhal is a Full Stack Software Engineer at VGN IT Craftsmenr Solution, specializing in building web applications using Java, Spring Boot, and React. His work focuses on developing robust backend services, designing scalable application architectures, and creating responsive, user-centric frontend experiences. With an interest in clean code, problem-solving, and software engineering best practices, Naitik is passionate about building practical solutions that bridge the gap between technical complexity and real-world needs. He is also keenly interested in open-source technologies, continuous learning, and contributing to the developer community by sharing knowledge and exploring ideas that make software development more accessible, collaborative, and impactful.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/naitiklovestech/

Reviews

Relatable topic with clear takeaways, but the references section just says “N/A”. Could you add a real example or two, like the FOSS tools you used or the experiment you ran, and show how this ties to open source?

Reviewer #1 Not Sure