Systems are powerful tools, if used correctly. But before we come to the question "Why can systems be powerful tools?" let get everybody on the same boat first.

Definition - What Is A System?

A system is a set of actions to get from a starting point α to an endpoint Ω. The amount of steps doesn't matter, so it can only consist of one step or a multitude of steps. Since a system can consist of only a single step, systems containing multiple steps can also have sub-systems.

Why Are Systems Powerful?

Given the definition a system has to fulfill two very important criteria:

1. It has to be finite
2. It must be describable

A system that's not finite cannot be described from start to end, well that's probably obvious. Therefore the two criteria are somehow related. If you can describe the single steps to someone else, that someone can execute the system as good as you describe it. And I'm using the phrase "that someone" here on purpose.

I actually don't like bothering myself with tedious things like organizing my digital files myself. Instead of downloading (e.g.) bank statements, opening my downloads folder, moving the files into the right destination directory and maybe even rename the file. With a single file every month, well that's probably okish, but you still need to take the action yourself every month. With a multitude of files, that honestly sucks and is time consuming. Now let's get back to "that someone". Since I don't like to do the task, why not delegate that task? Well other persons probably don't want to do that task either and probably not without payment. How about utilizing the tool you're using here anyway? Yes, I'm talking about your computer/laptop. These kind of devices are pretty damned good to automate tasks! 😉

How Can We Automate Systems?

Well that's depending on the system. Let's first take paying your rent. Usually you have a standing order at the last of day of the month, so you don't need to remember to transfer it. This is one of the simplest examples for automation.

I would advice you to learn at least some basics for scripting. You don't need to devote your life to become a fully fledged software developer, like me, don't get me wrong. Just a basic understanding of the fundamentals would suffice. For the rest use AI. The problem with AI code (at least for now: 2025-05-01) is quite simple. It tends to be buggy and not 100% precise, more something like 75-85%. It makes it way easier, if you could instruct AI with the right terms, which would increase the precision to roughly 80-90%, and double check or probably correct some mistakes or even script errors.

Just imagine you couldn't download your bank statements for a couple of months. You probably still have to login and download a bunch of files. Now instead of unzipping the downloaded archive, move and rename the files accordingly you download the zip and double click on a single script that does the rest for you. Who cool is that? This is a very simple example but if you're able to describe the necessary steps precisely you can get a script with the help of an AI which will do the job.
And if the system is too complex, split it up into smaller subsystems and put it back together.

Did I Choose That Example By Accident?

Nope. I have a somewhat different kind of problem. I'm using a Data Management System (DMS) to find my files much easier. A DMS uses meta-data to find data more efficiently. For every file I provide some metadata which needs to be maintained. As I mentioned earlier I'm a lazy fellow, so I don't like to fill out the meta data myself. This is rather time consuming. Instead I automate the metadata creation as far as possible. These differ for different files, of course. For bank statements I would like to know the institute, the year, the month, the account id whereas for pictures I'm interested in the year, month, day and the motive. I can then use the metadata to search for the pictures I took in 2024 of my cat Freyja.