His name is N8N, he is German and has converted the automation of workflows into something sexy

For many years Jan Oberhauser worked for special effects (VFX) companies in the film and television industry. In those works he realized that automating certain tasks allowed simplifying his work and that of his colleagues in a remarkable way, and that was when he decided to take a complete turn to his career: he created an automation startup he called which he called N8N and has ended up becoming the last and promising European unicorn. There is nothing. Thus N8N was born. The company founded by Oberhauser He was born in 2019 In Berlin, Germany. Its objective: create a workflow automation platform that stood out for being Open Source – they prefer to use the term “Fair Code“,” Fair code ” -. In addition, you could and can be used in both autohosped mode (anyone can be mounted on its PC/server) and directly through its” key in hand “systems with the traditional SAAS scheme and its Subscription plans. The code is available In Github. What does this platform do. Basically, Automize everything. For this, it makes use of integrations of all kinds in third -party web applications and services, but also internally developed tools and, for some time, AI models that have become one of the star ingredients of those automation. The possibilities are practically unlimited, but to give some examples, N8N allows: That upon receiving an email in Gmail the sender leakes, the attachments are saved in Google Drive and you will notify you in Slack That if any event occurs in an app or service, you are sent an alert in slack, whatsapp or discord Download SDE files a FTP server, convert them to another format, process them and then distribute them by messaging channels A big ifttt. In essence N8N is something like a IFTTT Supervitaminazo: It is possible to chain all kinds of tasks so that “if this happens, you do this another.” However, the goal is to capture not only to end users – in Reddit There is a community Very nourished and enthusiastic of them – but to business users, for whom it raises a clear alternative to very popular automation platforms such as Zapier either Make (In both cases, no autohosped solution). Something that seems boring and cumbersome apparently becomes something fun, almost sexy – as they demonstrate Some YouTube video tutorials-, with N8N. N8N has not stopped growing. In 2020, a few months after being created, he already captured a small investment round of 1.5 million dollars. A year later They raised 12 million dollars more in a new round, and since then they have not stopped growing, but their true explosion has taken advantage of the boom of generative AI. A German Unicorn. Four months ago and after a new financing round of 55 million euros, N8N had a notable assessment of 350 million dollars. But as they indicate In Bloombergthis assessment could now be triggered to the 2.3 billion dollars thanks to a recent additional round in which the Risk Capital firm will lead with an important participation not yet defined.N The French Mistral either The Spanish Freepik. AI agents as a key ingredient. The company already exceeds 40 million dollars of recurrent income (subscriptions), and has benefited from the aforementioned AI and the phenomenon of the AI agentswith the difference that here these agents are really One more piece of those flows Automation. When you define one of those flows, they can “call” any model of AI to perform any task, and from it, that the exit ends up being the entrance of a new stage of the workflow. The power of the system, which was already remarkable, is now multiplied with the help of that option. In Xataka | “Ai Fluency” will be the new “user level office” in employment offers. The problem: you will have to learn on your own

The willpower has failed in the adoption of habits, but the brain has a better trick: personal automation

Bet everything to willpower when you want to acquire a new habit It does not usually work. That I knew San Mateo: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” James Clear, author of the Best Seller ‘Atomic habits‘He already warns that leaving the acquisition of habits to willpower is a decision that brings you a little more to failure. Our brain is not designed to constantly fight against what is comfortable and known. Clear bet for creating systems that lead to the execution of the new habits that you want to acquire to achieve your goals without having to depend on discipline and constancy. However, there is a method that can simplify it much more: Personal automation. Habit, what a habit? One of the best strategies for acquire a new habit Without depending on willpower, it is simply not having to think that there is that new habit. That is to say, Automate habit In the same way you don’t think when you wash your teeth or what breakfasts daily. An example of personal automation can be the one used by Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg (before Your style change) in which They had adapted their wardrobe to reduce the number of decisions they made up to date, and thus reduce their mental load. Neither Jobs nor Zuckerberg were planted every day before their closet thinking about what they were going to put that day, they simply opened the closet and took a clothing that was already previously selected, without mental debate. In fact, the brain has a natural tendency to procedure. The creation of habits is based on cerebral plasticity or, which is the same, the brain learns to perform a task Based on the repetition of the sameuntil he learns, optimizes it and executes it unconsciously and involuntary. Do you think every movement of the fingers when you tie you a shoe, brush your teeth or scrub your dishes? Obviously not, because it is something you have practiced so much that Your brain has automated it. Now think of your new habit as that automated action and how you can assimilate it without even having to think about it. The key to generating that automation is to integrate the habit into a specific routine and in a specific order, to repeat it every day, in the same way that every morning you get up, show you, you dress, breakfast in a certain order. It is not usual to change that order once you have acquired it because you have automated the process and the strange thing will be to skip one of those steps, so it will not depend on whether you woke up without wanting to shower, or breakfast. You don’t even consider it, you simply do it. The benefits of personal automation Such and As they point out from Thinkwasabione of the greatest benefits of personal automation is mental energy saving. However, this system helps reinforce Acquisition of new habits or objectives without leaving any loophole to temptation not to do so. In addition, personal automation can stimulate your creativity and ability to solve problems. When the automation process of a certain action or habit is already very settled, the brain enters “autopilot” while this process is carried out, which leaves space for creative thinking by promoting the “Eureka” moments. Ideally, start little by little, choosing one or two things you can automate in your daily routine, and then add more progressively. For example, if one of your goals is to eat healthier or save, you can start by integrating in your weekend routine the elaboration of A menu for the whole week. By having it prepared, you will not have to think about your diet daily or worry about cooking during the week to eat healthy. If your goal is start sportsprepare your shoes and sports clothes in advance so that you just have to hear them and run. Having to look for them under the bed can become a more than enough excuse for your brain to mine your willpower. Do not give that advantage. The key to this technique is in the consistency and anticipation. Make small actions repeatedly until they become automatic habits. In Xataka | Until recently, people were very proud of how little I slept: today they are candidates to suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s In Xataka | The simple habit that provides a surprising impact on productivity: order the work space before starting Image | Unspash (Isaac Smith)

The secrets of the port of Shanghai, the colossus of international trade where automation reigns

Check out around you. The screen you are looking at, the clothes you wear or even your coffee maker have probably crossed the ocean in a container before reaching you. It is not a simple random assumption. About 80% of the goods travel by boat, which makes maritime transport into the backbone of the World Trade. Without this machinery running precisely, getting many of the things we use every day would be little less than an odyssey. A key piece of this system is the sea ports. We are talking about the nerve centers that not only receive and dispatch millions of containers a year, but also coordinate a millimeter logistics that allows goods to circulate fluently between continents. It is no secret that this world is in constant movement, but there is a title that has not changed hands for a long time: the port of Shanghai has been the most active in the world for 14 years. The port of Shanghai is also a port megaciudad After a long time, In 2024 the port of Shanghai became In the first in the world to handle more than 50 million teu in a single year. And when we talk about TEU, we refer to the standard container unit of 20 feet (6.1 meters) long. This port did not begin its rise to the throne yesterday. One of his first great achievements occurred in 1994, when he first exceeded the million TEU. Since then, its performance has grown exponentially, multiplying by 50 in three decades. There is no doubt that this reality is directly related to China’s industrial muscle, which has established itself as The greatest manufacturing power in the worldand with the spirit of the Asian giant for developing ambitious works. The port of Shanghai has not stopped evolving during the last decades. Automated terminals have gained ground to improve efficiency and security drastically. Less people work and everything becomes much faster. The port has completely automated terminals where tasks such as goods discharge, stacking and output are controlled by the “brain” of the management system. Sun Jinyu, one of the leaders of the Shangdong terminal, had in 2021 that The cranes needed about 108 operators in the past, but automation had allowed the same tasks With only 7 operators. And, because of that was not enough, most of the work was done through remote operation. But an impressive infrastructure would not be enough without strategic ties. The port of Shanghai began to handle containers in the 1970s and it was not until 1978 that he opened his first international route, one that joined China with Australia. At present, it is linked to almost 350 international routes, connecting more than 700 ports in more than 200 countries and regions of the world. Internal level, it also has 22 ports distributed by various Chinese provinces, consolidating its role as a key node in global trade. Images | Shanghai International Port (1, 23) | Reb42 In Xataka | Chinese submarines are authentic crickets: a new generation promises to change the rules of the game

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