Analysis
Arguments about where work software is going, with the reasoning shown.
- Analysis Automation
Power Automate vs Zapier for Microsoft 365: 35 apps checked
Microsoft 365 already pays for flows between Outlook, Excel, SharePoint and Teams. We checked 35 apps on both tools and priced three flows.
- Analysis Automation
Self-hosted n8n is free while only staff build the workflows
The license lets you run n8n and charge clients for workflows, not hand them the editor. SSO, Git and environments need a paid key; a 2 GiB server is about $12.
- Analysis Automation
Office Scripts vs VBA: what each can still do in 2026
VBA reaches the whole PC but not the browser. Office Scripts can run on a schedule but sees only the workbook. A table from Microsoft's docs, and what to move.
- Analysis Automation
Google Apps Script vs Power Automate: limits and prices compared
Both are free with the suite. Apps Script needs code and stops each run at 6 minutes; Microsoft 365 flows get 6,000 actions a day and standard connectors only.
- Analysis Automation
Employee monitoring and GDPR: why consent fails and what works
Recording staff to find work worth automating usually needs a legitimate interest test and an impact assessment, not consent. Regulators' texts, compared.
- Analysis Automation
xkcd's automation table, recomputed with upkeep counted
At an assumed hour a month of upkeep, 5 of 7 common tasks in our recomputed xkcd table never pay back. The script is below, so change the inputs.
- Analysis Automation
Zapier, Make and n8n priced for one workflow at 10,000 runs
One lead workflow at 10,000 runs a month, billed yearly: $289 on Zapier, $50 on n8n Cloud, about $29 on Make (unconfirmed on make.com). We also ran n8n.
- Analysis Automation
Task mining vs process mining: logs are cheap, screens are risky
Process mining reads logs your systems already keep; task mining records desktops. We mined sample logs of both kinds and read the prices and GDPR texts.
- Analysis AI
Anthropic's AI agents wait on people 80% of the time
Anthropic's study of its own staff finds human attention, not the model, now limits what agents deliver. Plan review time before you add more agents.
- Analysis Work software
Boring tools win: five tests before a small team buys automation
Knight Capital, the Post Office and CrowdStrike show the cost of automation nobody can read or stop, and five tests can expose it before a contract is signed.
- Analysis Automation
Office tasks worth automating hide in habits; a tally finds them
People misjudge the tasks they repeat most, so asking a team what to automate tends to miss the best candidates; counting for one week does not.
- Analysis Developer tools
Scheduled scripts fail silently; seven checks make them speak up
In a 34-line invoice script, two lines find the late invoices; the rest of the work is making sure a failure reaches a person, as GitLab learned in 2017.
