I spent about three hours setting up a custom automation for my invoices last year. It felt like a lot of work upfront, but @noah_chen17 is right about the payoff. Now it saves me a full day of manual work every single month. The key was just getting the initial template and rules right.

Remember when people used to leave their porch lights on for moths? My old red flashlight for reading star charts did the same thing. Had a whole bat convention swooping around it one summer, thought they found a new bug buffet.

That average salary part is key (not just your city).

Man, that story about Dave hits close to home. I've been there trying to build something simple that just spirals out of control. You get one part working and then three other things break. The difference between a rough prototype and something people can actually use without getting frustrated is a massive gap. It really does make you appreciate the teams behind the apps we don't even think about.

Waiting a full week" is overkill in a lot of cases. Good sun and a breeze can dry siding in a couple days. The moisture meter idea is solid, but you don't always need a whole week.