Convenience can hide the parts we still need

automation saves a ton of time, but i keep noticing it can also erase the tiny reps that keep you fluent. once a tool does the routine part for long enough, the manual version starts feeling weirdly foreign.

has anyone else run into that with their own workflow? i’m not ضد automation at all, it just seems like some tasks need occasional hands-on practice or you end up being fast at the tool and shaky at the actual skill.

Look — in ops this bites hardest with “push-button” failovers and restores. You run the button a few times, everyone relaxes, and then six months later the one weird edge case shows up and nobody remembers the manual steps or where the bodies are buried.

I’ve seen teams get very “fluent” in the UI and completely shaky on the actual recovery path when the UI is the thing that’s broken.