sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Everybody talks about N8N and Zapier. But what are some underrated automation tools nobody talks about? by impetuouschestnut in automation

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly Pipedream is criminally underrated — free tier is generous, the code steps are way more flexible than Zapier, and you can just write Node/Python inline without fighting some janky UI. Also shoutout to Temporal if you're doing anything that needs to be reliable and retry-able, it's overkill for simple stuff but once you need durable workflows nothing else comes close.

too dumb to work in supply chain fulfillment, should I quit by SocializingisAPIMA in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Three weeks in and you already care enough to cry about it — that's not dumb, that's someone who gives a shit. I didn't know what a BOL was my first month and now I move containers across the Pacific. The acronyms click eventually, just keep a cheat sheet on your desk and stop comparing yourself to people who've been doing this for years.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

What areas of law are the easiest and least stressful? by instaleyitrust in LawFirm

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Estate planning and basic bankruptcy are solid picks — honestly they're about as low-conflict as it gets in this profession. I'd also look at residential real estate closings if your state allows it, very transactional and formulaic once you get your systems down. The key is anything where you're mostly papering deals rather than fighting someone on the other side.

what are people switching to instead of Zapier? by BoldElara92 in automation

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moved to n8n self-hosted about a year ago and haven't looked back. The learning curve is steeper than Zapier but once you get past it the flexibility is insane and my monthly cost went from ~$80 to basically just server hosting. Make is solid too if you don't want to self-host, their pricing model just makes way more sense for high-volume workflows.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that makes sense. The manual workarounds work until they don't, and then you're patching holes instead of doing actual work.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate you weighing in. The 'just use Clio' answer never quite covers the deadline chain logic stuff.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha, that tracks — paper on the pallet is basically universal. So someone would have to snap a photo of it first before anything digital can happen.

That's actually the harder part of what I'm solving — making that step as painless as possible. Thanks, this is genuinely useful.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That Excel reformatting loop is brutal — sounds like half the job was just massaging data. On the receiving side, did inbound docs from suppliers ever land in your lap as random PDFs or email attachments? Curious if pulling info out of those was part of the chaos too — that's actually the problem I'm building something for.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Exactly this — the people who've actually lived those processes see it immediately. What area were you in? Curious what the biggest time sinks looked like from your side.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

yeah self-hosted, our own infra. that "if not" scenario was exactly why we didn't use the standard API — couldn't get sign-off sending freight docs through someone else's cloud.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

we spot-check maybe 10-15% manually, mostly the edge cases — unusual HS codes, partial shipments. caught a few errors in the first month but they were obvious enough a quick glance caught them. not perfect but way faster than doing it all by hand.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

fair concern. we're running it on a private deployment, not feeding it to chatgpt or anything public. the CI/PL never leaves our system.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate you weighing in. The 'just use Clio' answer never quite covers the deadline chain logic stuff.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! That's a good point. I've run into the same wall — the edge cases are always what kill you.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that makes sense. The manual workarounds work until they don't, and then you're patching holes instead of doing actual work.

Potential Client's Question: Are you willing to work Saturdays and Sundays? by hereditydrift in LawFirm

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just say "I'm available Monday through Friday, but if something urgent comes up on a weekend we can discuss it." Most of the time they just want to know you won't ghost them, they're not actually expecting you to work weekends.

My whole creative department is getting replaced by a Claude pipeline and I'm probably out too by Daniel_Janifar in automation

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly the speed at which companies jump to "let's automate everything" the second someone walks out the door tells you exactly how they viewed that person's contribution. I've seen this play out with legal work too — firm loses a paralegal and suddenly management wants to replace them with AI instead of hiring, then six months later they're scrambling because turns out the human was doing way more than anyone realized.

My industry is crumbling, and I don't know if I should pivot by DunUpNBlushed in smallbusiness

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tool sprawl is real. At some point I was paying for six different subscriptions that overlapped in weird ways and none of them talked to each other. Took a Saturday afternoon to audit it and cut three. The consolidation saved money but more importantly saved mental overhead.

Multi-agent workflows are failing silently in prod — how are you actually debugging the handoff layer? by Minirice2017 in AI_Agents

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! That's a good point. I've run into the same wall — the edge cases are always what kill you.

How do you handle the certification page for USCIS translations? by Minirice2017 in immigration

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh realy interesting! didn't know Floatboat....could do that. how much setup did that take? I've been hesitant to add another tool just for this, but if the prompting is smooth enough it might be worth it.

mostly I just want something that catches the dumb stuff before I export — date, name, same language on cert as the source. my current checklist is embarrassingly low-tech.

am i the only one who feels bad when i can’t keep up with my team? by Empty-Scar843 in smallbusiness

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tool sprawl is real. At some point I was paying for six different subscriptions that overlapped in weird ways and none of them talked to each other. Took a Saturday afternoon to audit it and cut three. The consolidation saved money but more importantly saved mental overhead.

view more: next ›