Traffic lights that make you wait for no reason. (automation is cool until it's not...)

So here it is, my second blog post! Hooray. 

I'm trending in the right direction in that Saturday's moves to procure a domain name (www.serve2soar.blog) + draft up a first blog, and actually post it here, was not just a, "one-hit wonder!" 

It couldn't be truer, that it's the little victories (things) in life, that keep us going... 🗲

And so we arrive to something I wanted you all to think about.

Traffic lights that make you wait for no reason. 

I thought of this concept after making the trek home earlier today from the post office.

And so, a derivative I wanted to offer, of the sometimes often annoyance of being stuck at a red light when there's no traffic to be seen near and far, is that --> automated things are cool until they're not…

Because those annoying traffic lights are operating on an automated (automatic) schedule, they can be a hindrance in your journey to where you are headed to. 

Image source (MIT) 

In this day and age where automation is one of the more prominent buzz words / concepts, when can automation be a bad thing? 

Well besides automated traffic control 😎, automation can also be counterintuitive in realms like:

• Social media (specifically LinkedIn...)
• Business building or community building type outreach 
• Trying to take the sometime manual, arduous process of prospecting for new companies/consumers of the service or product you have to offer via automation 
• Worker displacement (in a manufacturing setting) 

So, the summation here = 

While automation is cool and useful in some ways, in today's digitally dominated domain of life, going "old school" with things like penning custom, hand written letters to send to friends/mentors/clients/prospects, etc. + doing custom outreach via LinkedIn or email where you exhibit it is obvious you did proper due diligence on your outreach target and are reaching out for a substantive reason, will do you WONDERS in getting ahead. 

Conversely, it seems that some companies/professionals would rather automate certain processes in the name of efficiency.. but all to lose that human, unique touch that can make all the world of a difference.

Supplemental information (on traffic lights that hold you up at red lights for no good reason...): 

Fascinating article (including above image) http://web.mit.edu/2.744/studentSubmissions/humanUseAnalysis/vsoares/