[mreiland]

I think the author is learning the wrong thing.

Software isn't about automating things, and certainly not about automating things 100%. It's about building tools to leverage people's times (in this context).

If you can build software that makes those folks doing those manual processes 30% more productive, then do so.

He has this idea that you should never build tools by default because automating them 100% is too costly. Automating them 100% may be too costly, stop trying to do that.