$ whoami

Hi frenz 👋 call me bits!

Or you can call me Brian Olsen. I'm a 🎖️ U.S. marine with ADHD 🧠 turned 👨‍💻 software engineer turned open source advocate. I'm an anarchosyndicalist that believes in free-markets and democracy through open education and distribution of power. Let's incentivize less suffering over growth of goods. We need to start playing positive-sum games, and realize scarcity is mostly artificial at this point.

The internet makes distributed collaboration possible, but serves a profit-ruled system driving humans towards multiple crises. Open source software produced Linux, Apache Web Server, and the many innovative software projects that challenge the oligopoly and distributed power to many independent creators and small businesses. I want to empower every human today with equal education, opportunity, and social capital needed to realize the will of the people through economic disruption in open source.

I became aware of the power of open standards and open movements working in developer relations for open source projects like Iceberg, Trino, and larger data and machine learning communities. After five years at two startups I developed a multifaceted view on building a successful product and business around permissive licensing.

Before that I spent six years as a Software Engineer in the data analytics and another six years in the U.S. Marine Corps maintaining intranet systems for field operations. I've seen the best and the worst that humans have to offer and I believe that telling the right stories and tying our own survival to the survival of every other being will bring us one step closer to the ideal.

Centralized social media in the form of a single platform for everyone to interact with one puppet master algorithm has had terrible consequences on our mental health and autonomy. Let's bring back the fragmented internet of the 90s and empower and incentivize smaller worker cooperatives when building private capital. As a species, we've overcorrected on centralization of wealth and power.

I believe people are not good or evil, but have maladapted brains to the systems humans have collectively created over the years and it's time for a refresh. I want to share how open movements like open education, gig economy and entrepreneurship, distributed communication, a truly global free-market economy, and minimal government involvement will nudge us towards the direction of fixing wealth inequality. We know forced and planned socialism (i.e. communism) doesn't work so we need an organic motion from society.

Frameworks like open source in software are early manifestations of distributed human collaboration that wasn't possible before the internet, and it teaches us that collaboration of many doesn't only keep up with corporate products, but outpaces them to the point that they have gotten more involved to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.

What if we applied this notion to other areas of centralized control?

📜 More than you wanted to know about me...

I'm a computer nerd that absolutely ❤️ s ☕. Yes it's trite...but I'm owning it.

I really like digging into the algorithms underlying ⚙️🗄️ database systems, 💽🔎 data analytics, and 📈📊 data visualization. I spent four years as a Data Engineer at a cybersecurity company working on pipeline maintenance and query optimization. While in this role, I was responsible for maintaining data pipelines and migrations to include replacing some legacy data warehousing systems to use open-source Trino. I enjoy playing guitar🎸, maps/GIS systems🗺️, oxford commas🔣, and long walks on the beach🏖️.

I served six years in the Marine Corps and got out with an honorable discharge as a Sergeant. During that time my job was to maintain data communications 📡 through networking systems for a battalion for field operations. Experiencing the technology that enabled Marines to complete their mission planted a curiosity in me that led to my career in computation.

🍔 Food

What's your favorite cuisine, restaurant, or meal? Craft Burgers, Fries, and a Beer

What are your favorite desserts or sweets? Chocolate Cake with an espresso

Do you like to cook or bake? What are your favorites? I like to cook recipes that take less than 30 min, but taste amazing.

🎭 Arts & Entertainment

What are some of your favorite movies? (Or actors or filmmakers.) – Movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas – Actor: Edward Norton – Filmmaker: Tim Burton

What are your favorite books or authors? – Book: The Subtle Art of not Giving A F*ck – Author: Richard Dawkins

What are your favorite TV shows? (Current or all-time favorites.) – Metalocalypse – Rurouni Kenshin – Silicon Valley – Betas – Pokémon – Rick and Morty – Bob's Burgers – How I met your mother

What are your favorite bands, musical artists, or genres? – Band: The Living End – Artist: Chris Cheney – Genre: Psychobilly

🎸 Activities

What things do you nerd out on? Guitar and Code

Do you have any hobbies? – Hanging with my wife and kids – Guitar – Code

What sports or physical activities do you enjoy? Running and Lifting

Do you follow any sports or teams? No, I only attend a sporting event for the social aspects

What are your favorite games? (Board games, video games, etc.) – Pokémon – Diablo I, II, III + extensions – Mega Man 6

🪞 Personal History

Where did you grow up or what places have you lived? – Born: Los Angeles, CA – Raised: St. Louis, MO – Live: Chicago, IL

What are your favorite places in the world that you've visited? – Netherlends – Italy – Colombia – Spain – Mexico

Did you have a favorite subject or a major in school? Computer Science/Spanish

profile for Brian Olsen at Stack Overflow