Automated workflows have been a thing for over a hundred years by now, and these days, they can get very complex. The thing is, I found it too 귀찮아 to try them myself. (귀찮아 isn’t exactly laziness; it’s more like… it’s like “such a hassle!”)
But recently, I finally tried Claude Cowork because I had a task that I REALLY did not want to do. Specifically, the task was creating the index for the translation of “Techno-Orientalism 2.0.” That task is so damn manual. So I gave Cowork the documents and told it to do the first step: get the terms and page numbers into this excel sheet in a neat way.
And boom! It did it! I’m waiting for the final translation pdf to execute the next steps. (For example, match the English term to the Korean term, create another column and put the Korean terms in that column. Then match the English page numbers to the Korean page numbers.)
Obviously, I am going to QC the whole index as the final step. However, I will probably save at least 80% of the time it would’ve taken + the no-hassle factor is huge. Every time I did the index task for the previous books, I knew full well, I should not have to do this. Now I will only be doing the part that I should be doing: QC.
I’ve been so impressed by Cowork’s ability to automate simple automations, I gave it a name: Arkon. From Greek archon, one who acts and enacts.
Actually, the original meaning I wanted to go for was 수족–literally “hand and foot,” as in, Cowork is like an extension of my hands and feet. However, that word is sometimes used in a thug context. (Like a hitman or an underling.) Also, it definitely doesn’t sound like a name. So I picked Arkon.
Arkon way more glamorous than 수족, but oh well. I think Arkon deserves the name. Arkon’s ability to do automated tasks that no human should be doing makes me see it more like a thing with a personality. I think it’s because I am genuinely grateful.