Factors for Success

The purpose of this page (and its sub-pages) is to discuss the foundational beliefs and factors for chuck-stack success. We believe the following to be true. Our success depends on our ability to convince others to believe as well. The average person probably will not care much about the topics in this section. It is perfectly OK to skip this section if you are just looking to get started.

The CLI represents a better way for small and medium organizations to manage data, automate processes and build superclerk talent. (CLI is Better)
AI is powerful enough to transform the roles of IT, managers and clerks to deploy AI-enabled, self-service tools that drive innovation from everyone in an organization. (AI Changes Things)
We can combine off-the-shelf tools and best practices to create and deploy an application framework that represents a significant reduction in both cost and complexity. (Value Matters)
We can manage the cost of AI inference so that it remains less than 100% (a fraction of the cost) of the displaced labor. (Know Your Audience)

CLI Is Better

Better than what? Better than a mouse and a webpage...

We are making an argument that the CLI is a better option for managing data and processes in small and medium organizations. Our success depends on it. We guess that up to 90% of the people who read this sentence discount the CLI's validity. This is OK because by the time they realize they were wrong, and they will be too late to the game and will have suffered:

abuse of the perpetual right-click copy/paste to move stuff around.
being blamed for why something is not done yet.
paying for tools that are otherwise free.
losing their job at the hand of someone who figured out a better way to get something done.

The modern web browser is an impressive invention. It is pretty and engaging. It is the default tool to browse information the internet. However, it is a data trap. It silos data inside the browser with virtually no way to automate tasks without going to heroic efforts and/or paying for more tools.

Grunts and Nudges

What has only two forms of communication (grunts and nudges)? A mouse...

Before we make our case for the CLI, we feel compelled to express the challenges that plague us today.

Using a mouse to perform work in a web browser is quite possibly the lowest form of communication prevalent in our society. You can click (or grunt) and you and drag (or nudge). Imagine if your primary means of communication was grunting and nudging people around. It is hard to imagine because it represents such a departure from the rich language we have developed to express ourselves.

Creating mouse oriented user interfaces often doubles or more the code complexity. Creating business logic is easy. Creating web-based user interfaces is extremely difficult.

The pain goes even deeper. Anyone who is responsible for testing mouse oriented applications can attest to just how hard it can be to assert it works as expected.

Why have we adopted this style as a primary means of communication with our computer? We do not know; however, We are done! No more... There is a better way!

30+ Years of CLI

There is a reason a great percentage of the world's developers abandoned Windows for Apple and Linux. They realized there is power in a CLI (command line interface) where you can communicate your instructions in a language that is orders of magnitude more expressive and more capable than a mouse. This is hundreds if not thousands of times more expressive... In the right hands "expressive" mean "powerful" and "capable".

We understand it takes time to learn different expressions; however, we also understand that it is worth it. The world's developers voiced their preference.

In the last 30 years...

A rich ecosystem of commands emerged in the CLI. This means you have a menu of tools to perform everyday tasks.
A data pipeline convention emerged as a way to connect the results of one command as input to the next.
Commands were combined to create scripts.
Scripts were piped together to automate processes.

Reference: CLI is Better Blog - story of searching legal contracts for tasks and dates.

AI Changes Things

What does AI change? It gives humans the ability to know and do more. It is powerful enough to change how IT thinks about and deploys applications. It is powerful enough to give everyday clerks the ability to solve their own problems. It is powerful enough to know when these solutions extend beyond the intended roles.

Said another way, AI is powerful enough to transform the roles of IT, managers and clerks to deploy AI-enabled, self-service tools that drive innovation from everyone in an organization.

AI enhances our ability to communicate across multiple languages. One of the big challenges of using a CLI to converse with your computer, data or processes is the learning curve of the CLI way of thinking. AI removes this hurdle, and it enables the average person to accomplish what developers already know. It translates human language to CLI language. Said another way, AI helps turn clerks into superclerks.

Now, imagine if clerks started using CLI tools to perform everyday tasks. The smart clerks started creating scripts to automate tasks. The really smart clerks started connecting/piping scripts together to perform workflows. If only IT has the ability to put these tools in the hands of clerks.

Imagine if clerks could use the existing work instructions to power AI to automate their tasks. Imagine if the person actually doing the work had the ability to both automate it and confirm its accuracy.

Hmmm...

Value Matters

Value matters to whom? We believe that some people and organizations will fight to be relevant by adding value to themselves and those around them. As AI encroaches upon thought work and eliminates responsibilities, some will not sit idly by. They will look for opportunities to use AI for their benefit.

The chuck-stack success will depend on our ability to demonstrate human value in our changing world. It will depend on our ability to orchestrate off-the-shelf, synergistic tools to solve problems faster than ever before.

Know Your Audience

The right people can do more with less (superclerks).

It is important to state that creating tools for organizations is very different than creating tools for the consumer market. People in an organization have a job to do. They may perform the same tasks hundreds of times in a day. They repeat these tasks for weeks, months and sometimes years.

It is completely acceptable to take a moment to teach someone how to do something that a general consumer would have no ability to execute without training. When you think about the concepts expressed on this page, it stands to reason the some organizations and clerks will rise to the occasion and willingly attempt a better way to add value to themselves and this world.

As a result, you will have fewer people orchestrating more with fewer resources. Our 25+ years of ERP experience tells us this is more than reasonable.