I used to think automation was just another way people got snuck ahead of the competition by implementing tools and systems that most of us either hadn’t heard about or didn’t even know how to set up, let alone develop.
I remember thinking the businesses and people utilizing automation in their daily workflows would be the ones taking the lead, while everyone else was left in the dark about these tools and methods, because at the time automation was looked at as taboo, something only some people knew about, and even fewer people implemented it.
I thought that pursuing automation or making a web app may not be for someone who still occasionally googles “how to center a div.”
But lately, something’s been shifting in my relationship and views on technology and automation. And it all started with a few ideas about making something that would notify me about the beach weather and finding tools like n8n.
When the Impossible Becomes a Tuesday Afternoon Project
You know that feeling when you’re standing at the edge of something that feels way too big? That was me, staring at n8n’s interface for the first time. Nodes and webhooks and JSON, oh my.
Years ago, this stuff made my brain hurt just thinking about it. APIs? Might as well have been asking me to perform surgery. Webhooks? Sounded like something you’d need a fishing license for.
But here’s the thing about feeling overwhelmed: sometimes it’s just our inner garden telling us we’re about to grow. Ever notice our plants tell us the same messages? Just like when we see roots creeping through the drainage holes of our plant pots.
My First Tiny Victory (And Why It Mattered More Than I Expected)
I started with something pretty simple. A daily quote bot for my Discord server.
Every morning at 8 AM, it posts an inspiring message or quote using the free API from https://forismatic.com/en/ . Then, and this is where it gets interesting, I use my offline AI model that’s running in the background, which adds its own reflection about what that quote might mean for our day. It’s like having a thoughtful friend who never forgets to share morning inspiration.
Watching it work that first time? I’m not going to lie, I did a little happy dance in my living room. My dog judged me I’m sure, but I didn’t care.
Because suddenly, I got it. This wasn’t about becoming a programmer. This was about making life a little more magical, one small automation at a time.
The Rabbit Hole That Didn’t Feel Like Falling
After that first win, I knew I couldn’t stop there.
Next came my Cannon Beach weather tracker. Every morning, boom, I get a fresh camera shot from the beach paired with current weather conditions, right in my Discord. It’s like having a window to the ocean that updates itself while I sleep.
Then I got practical. Really practical. I built a Fred Meyer deals tracker that monitors my actual favorite items from my grocery list. Now I just type !deals in my 🛒-current-deals channel and instantly see which of my regular purchases are on sale. No more missing that discount on my favorite coffee just because I didn’t check the weekly ad.
Each workflow felt less like coding and more like… gardening. Setting up systems that would tend themselves, that would bloom on schedule without my constant attention.
What I’ve learned about debugging
Here’s the plot twist: debugging a broken node or code at 1 AM teaches you a lot about patience.
When you’re trying to figure out why your automation isn’t triggering, and you realize you forgot one tiny slash in a URL, you learn humility. When you finally get that stubborn API to connect after the twentieth attempt, you start to understand that persistence pays off.
And when you ask AI to explain something for the seventh time, in even simpler terms, and it does so without a hitch? You realize we’re living in an extraordinary moment.
The Permission Slip We’ve All Been Waiting For
We’re in this wild new age where the barriers between “I wish I could” and “I did it” are dissolving faster than morning fog.
AI doesn’t roll its eyes when you ask how to format a date in JavaScript. Again. It doesn’t judge when you admit you don’t know what APIs are. It just helps. Patiently. Endlessly.
These tools aren’t here to replace us or make us feel small.
They’re here to remind us that we’ve always been capable of more than we imagined. They are here to be our sidekick for boosting our current practices.
We just needed better bridges to get there.
The Questions That Change Everything
What if every “dumb question” you’ve been holding back is actually a seed waiting to sprout?
What if that app idea you’ve been sitting on for years could exist by next Tuesday?
What if the only thing between you and your next creation is the willingness to type “how do I…” into a chat window?
Here’s What I Know Now
The soil has already been tilled. By people way smarter than me who built these tools and made them accessible. By AI that translates our human fumbling into actual, working code. By communities that share workflows like gardeners trading seeds.
All we have to do is plant something. Anything. One tiny automation that makes tomorrow slightly better than today.
Maybe it’s a reminder to water your plants. Maybe it’s a script that tells you when your favorite artist releases new music. Maybe it’s something nobody else would understand but would make your specific life 3% easier.
Start there. Start small. But start.
Because once you feel that first rush of “wow, I built that myself and it actually works,” you’ll understand what I mean about the bridges. They’re not just connecting us to technology.
They’re connecting us to parts of ourselves we didn’t know existed.
The gardener in you who can now tend digital soil. The creator who doesn’t need anyone’s permission to build. The person who stopped waiting for someday and decided today was good enough.
The tools are here. The teachers are infinitely patient. The only question left is: what are you going to grow first?
I would love to hear what type of projects you’re working on in the comments below.
Be first to get notified when new seeds arrive in the garden! As a fellow gardener, you can get the latest updates straight to your inbox and join the community of gardeners all working on our garden inside. I am not interested in spam, only growth.
Leave a Reply