$50 to move past your bottleneck? I’d say that’s worth a fortune in ROI if you had:
a) poor design sense;
b) poor design engineering (you have good design sense but can’t figure out how to build it);
c) taken more than your hourly salary to learn a + b.
Agree with understanding if you could do it cheaper and faster next time, but the rule of 3 usually applies: “good, fast and cheap, pick 2”
It looks like you’re on the right track; pragmatism about specific tools, and their use cases.
Hopefully your friend sees the value in the tool and a big ROI too!
Luckily Minority Report belongs to the fictional movies category.
But I also think that this type of technology - if properly used - can prevent actual crimes.
Scary? Of course.
If it needs access to my real system data, tell me why, and guide me through the all steps I need to complete to set it up.
Write out every step. Make it obvious. Come back to your instructions the next day and make them simpler, and more obvious.
Have as few steps as possible.
Time to value is key here.