Wow, I hope you didn't mean that to be as self-protectionist as it sounded. Good way to paint yourself into a corner and get stuck doing one set of data processing for many years to come.

Automation should in fact be what we do with everything we touch. That's the only way we can keep moving on to bigger and ostensibly better things in our careers. Plus it's just plain mean to leave something like that to the next poor schmuck who has to maintain it until it gets automated.

I agree that data is just as important as the system that processes it. And the data load will only increase for the foreseeable future. We need to remain open and curious regarding how we can help make sense of it.