When You See a Business, Imagine How You'd Automate It

I do this all the time (are you the same?). When I see a business, or use one, my brain starts thinking about how I'd automate things there.

I just called a tire shop (it's October in Edmonton, you can infer why I needed one!). The owner picked up the phone, but could not speak because he was busy fixing a tire. He called back 10 minutes later, we confirmed a time for my appointment, and it sounded like he wrote my name in his paper planner.

Where did my brain go immediately?

Right: he could use an online appointment booking system! A paper planner converted into a database (and I immediately started thinking about the schema). WhatsApp integration for reminders (usually cheaper than texts).

Wait. Appointment reminders are cool, but you know what's cooler? Seasonal reminders! I'm swapping from summer to winter tires now, so I could get a reminder when it's time to swap back, sometime in April (Canada, eh!).

And... I could actually... connect the reminder engine to some weather API! So reminders can be triggered by melting snow or warmer temperatures!

Not done yet. The reminders could offer specific time slots for an appointment (based on the history of booking patterns, like preferences for mornings vs. afternoons) -- and the client could just tap the preferred appointment time (all within WhatsApp)!...

I'll stop here (even though it's hard to stop) -- you get the point.

So. What exactly am I doing here? I'm exercising computational thinking and practicing my system-design skills -- daily. Free interview prep, anyone?

Mental exercises like this are also a great source of side-project ideas (see Tip 176). It all eventually connects. I thought of weather-triggered reminders for the tire shop -- maybe later, I'll build spending-triggered notifications for my family budget app.

Also, I am not saying that the tire shop will do better if it replaces the paper planner with a fancy ML-driven booking system! This shop is awesome: it has 5.0 on Google, and it's very nice when the owner himself picks up the phone! This isn't a business-school case study -- it's a CS one.

Such cases are everywhere around you, hiding in every business transaction you do daily. Don't ignore those transactions -- dissect them and start designing systems around them. That's how you learn.