Over the years, I’ve written on an array of subjects on the AATT blog and its sister newsletter. Everything from workflow breakdowns, to my thoughts about the future of no-code. I could never quite find a consistent topic I liked writing about, and the blog waned.
Late last year, Giovanni Segar—consummate automator and fan of the blog—reached out to talk about reviving it together. I agreed, but only on the condition that we find a topic we are both passionate enough about to consistently write about.
We reviewed old blog posts, selecting our favorites. Notably, posts like "Why the Problem Isn’t Your Tools–It’s You" and "You Don’t Understand Your Workflow" stood out. We quickly realized the common theme and passion we shared: striving for a 10% improvement in everything we do.
10% better guy > Airtable guy
Becoming an expert in one tool tends to narrow your focus—you’ve got a hammer and every workflow is a nail. And the solution to every workflow problem is migrating to your favorite shiny tool.
Look, I love Airtable. I love teaching Airtable, and I wish it was better understood. That said, Airtable remains just a tool to me. It doesn’t solve anything by itself. I find it unfortunate that to many people, I’m the “Airtable guy”. That’s not how I see myself or how (I hope) my colleagues see me.
Together with Gio, I want to renew my focus on making workflows 10% better at a time.
In the hundreds of workflows we’ve been a part of—approvals, expenses, events, whatever—we’ve come to see that this approach is the only way to make things better. It doesn’t matter the size, complexity, or importance of your workflow. Iterative improvements are the only path to take your workflows from dreadful to pleasant, from opaque to informative or from “if you make me do this one more time, I’m going to quit” to “this was done in my sleep”.
It’s unfortunately not the route we see teams taking. Instead they throw up their hands in despair. Because they believe the tool is the problem. Because the task is too daunting. Because that’s how things have always been done—who are we to change it? Because they believe the tools are too complicated for them to manipulate.
All excuses we think are bullshit and myths we hope to dispel with the 10% better newsletter.
So every two weeks, Giovanni and I will share tips on how to make your workflows 10% better. Sometimes that’ll be a thought piece about documentation, other times our thoughts on a new workflow tool that has come across our desks and other times specific workflows we’ve implemented and improved over time.
We’re not quite sure where this is going but if you come along for the ride and give us your feedback, we’ll incorporate it and promise to make every edition 10% better than the last one. And if we do that, there’s no stopping us.
Aron & Gio.
