For most of my life, I have sought out every opportunity to figure out something outside my comfort zone, be it systems administration or leadership, networking or enterprise architecture, performance tuning or functional programming. I have contributed to open source software, built a dimensional model, recruited teams, set up DevOps stacks, designed good (and bad) REST APIs, and taught agile techniques.Like many passionate, experienced software makers, I hold some opinions about what makes good software, good systems, and good teams. I lean towards agile and lean thinking, REST APIs, empiricism, dynamic languages, NoSQL data solutions, open source, Theory Y management, and spare documentation. I enjoy discussing these things with those who disagree, and have learned a lot in the process.