Distributed systems programmer/designer, systems administrator, writer, poet, somnolence professional.

I work for $ on large, old backend systems. I typically am tasked with scaling them or redesigning/rewriting parts of them so that they can scale independently of the rest. I abhor the term "microservice"--not because it's a fad, but because it's so vague as to be useless in conversation among people who do not happen to have the exact same opinion of its definition. I work in Java, JavaScript (Node), Perl, Bash, and Go.

I think software fads/trends are useful with a grain of salt--not because they're "things you must do/use", but because they point in the direction of useful change if you step back and squint at 'em. When working with people/systems very firmly entrenched in (and limited by) past techniques and tools, some pressure in that direction is often very welcome. That said, I hate hype-driven greenfielding.

I consider myself a "very good Bash/shell programmer", which I find somewhat regrettable. Basic Bash/shell knowledge is a prereq when working on complex unixish backends. Intermediate knowledge is extremely powerful and useful in many situations people don't expect. However, advanced knowledge is akin to having underwater basket weaving championship awards, sadly. I'm gradually uploading a few corporate-approved, polished solutions to shell problems here: https://github.com/zbentley/bash-tricks