[jungler]

My reaction to customizations that shave off seconds is: "so what, it'll be blown away the next time the tech stack changes." I do automate, but there's a subtle difference in goals.

If I automate my personal toolset, I follow the same procedure I use around automation anywhere else: don't start off doing it to save time, do it to increase reliability. I will write small scripts, sometimes one-liner scripts, sometimes largish hundreds-of-lines scripts. But the outcome I am aiming for is that I have a procedure that is documented and puts all the configuration in a place where I can see it, so that when the situation changes, it is fixable. A productivity boost is a frequent byproduct of successfully automating, but it's usually a side component to "reliable and documented". The boost is perceived as reduced friction and increased conceptual integrity: fewer things to check or to accidentally get out of sync, and thus less stress involved.

Focusing on UI being both shiny and fast is likewise often missing the point - which is the case when discussing new hardware. There are order-of-magnitude thresholds for human attention that are important to keep in mind, but hitting a lower attention threshold usually doesn't solve a productivity problem. It creates a case of "wrong solution faster", drawing the user into a fast but unplanned and reactive feedback loop.

See for example the case of writers who like the Alphasmart, a device that makes doing editing so tedious that you don't do it, you just write the draft and edit later.

[mcny]

I work with .NET and that used to mean you have to be on a Windows® computer. At a place I used to work at, I had an HP elite book Windows 7 laptop with i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a spinning hard disk. That by itself is not the problem. The problem is there is an "asset management" software installed (I assume by default) that is overly active which when combined with a antivirus with "real-time protection" meant a subversion checkout can take a long time. This definitely degrades employee morale I think.