For software, Brooks' Law tells us that adding people to a late project makes it later. Linus' Law says that adding enough debuggers to a project will speed it up dramatically. On the hardware side, Moore's Law says processors double in power every 18 to 24 months. And according to Metcalfe's Law, networks grow in value by the square of the number of their users. And where IT meets business, there are some other lessons we've learned, too.
Automation can do only so much.
When users' brains control the machines, they're immensely more powerful. Hardware keeps getting cheaper. Software keeps getting more expensive. The cheapest way to speed up the machine is with faster hardware. But the only way to make it more effective is with better software.