I do the sysadmin-thing for a living, and I'm terrible at writing blurbs like this. I deal mostly with various linux infrastructure, and a small cluster. I tend towards not liking black/opaque boxes which I'm to have an informed opinion about or have any kind of responsibility for. I really like knowing "how stuff works" and how "stuff" talks to "other stuff", as I feel it gives me a better foundation to make informed decisions.