== Automation promotes action

I've written before about the [[advantages of scripts ScriptsRemember]],
but my own recent experiences have reminded me of another one, which
I can snappily phrase as ~~automation promotes action~~. Or in other
words: when you've scripted something so that it's easy to do, you do it
more often.

I build Firefox from CVS myself, for various reasons, but I run it on
a different machine than I build on. Bringing up a new build up on the
right machine involves about three or four steps; nothing particularly
intricate, but just long enough to be vaguely annoying. (Among other
things, I save the old build in case I want or need to revert to it;
since I'm on the bleeding edge, this happens every so often.)

For a long time I didn't script this, because it was just small enough
to seem silly and just dangerous enough to make me nervous. Recently
I bit the bullet and spent the time to write a _newfox_ script that I
was happy with. Predictably, I now feel much happier about doing build
updates and they happen somewhat more often; the difference between
typing _newfox_ and typing N somewhat long commands turns out to
actually matter after all.

Call it a lesson learned. Apparently every so often I need to experience
these things, not just know them intellectually.