There's an innate joy in automating boring tasks: that moment when you make a machine do your work, for you. This has always been possible. Anyone could automate pretty much anything by writing up a bash or python script. Anyone who already knew how to code. Unlike the nerdy bunch for whom tinkering is natural hobby, most people view computing as a means to an end - to do the thing and move on with their day. In between these two ends, there's a emerging group of technically curious people who would want to do more with their computers, but aren't interested in learning to code just to save a few minutes off their day. The ones who that would ideally like to use technology to solve their own problems. Maggie Appletion, a tech researcher calls this group "Barefoot Developers". This addresses a fundamental divide: Automation remains locked away from the very people who could benefit the most from it.
[IMG: Different groups of People](https://files.catbox.moe/7ck085.png)
For the past decade or so, there has been a surge of tools trying to democratize automation for everyone. These platforms gave ordinary folks a chance to try automation through simple visual interfaces and drag-and-drop modules. IFTTT introduced simple if-then logic, while Zapier later added pre-built connectors to various apps and services. These were later categorized as "simple no-code tools". Yet in their quest for simplicity, they compromised heavily on extensibility. You could only do what their preset templates allowed. The tools that didn't fall into these traps were either prohibitively expensive or locked users into their walled gardens.
n8n is one such tool that bridges this gap perfectly for "barefoot developers" - enabling technically curious people to start enjoying the fruits of automation without first having to learn to code or by compromising on their software freedoms. Being fair-code, self hostable, it strikes just the right balance between ease of use and extensibility of tool.
[IMG: Tools on a 2D Axis](https://files.catbox.moe/m6yvyr.png)
I'll also be demonstrating how I had set up n8n locally on my raspberry pi and also demo walkthrough two example automation workflows that I'd build with n8n - one fun, one practical (still finailizing this). Showing how easy it is to automate parts of your life. And this isn't always about maximising productivity, doing this stuff can be fun too. With the recent explosive growth of LLMs and AI chatbots, almost all automation challenges are just a few questions away from a half working solution, bringing the barrier even lower than before.
My goal with "Autom8n for people" is to show that it's now easier than ever for regular folks to solve their own problems using tech. Instead of frustratedly fighting tech, this is about that simple innate joy of making technology work for you and not the other way around.
Note to Reviewers: Sligthly Experimental format mixing demos, history, and empowerment philosophy. Full transparency: I'm an n8n community ambassador, but this is entirely self-initiated and the n8n team doesn't even know I'm proposing this talk. None of this is a sponsored content.
Hopefully perspective shift on solving own problems with tools avaialbe at hand.
Understand n8n as one such tool, know it's features and possibilities.