Xkcd-is-this-worth-the-time Memes

Spending 10 days automating a 10-minute task is basically the programmer's version of "work smarter, not harder." Sure, you could just do it manually and be done with it, but where's the fun in that? Real programmers see a repetitive task and immediately think "I could write a script for this" even if they'll only ever run it twice. The math doesn't math, but the principle is sacred. You'll save so much time... eventually... theoretically... in like 5 years if you do this task 144 more times. But hey, at least you learned three new libraries and refactored it four times along the way.