A number of things make me more inclined to look at writeups on using the command line, and command-line tools, than those on higher-level languages like Python

A number of things make me more inclined to look at writeups on using the command line, and command-line tools, than those on higher-level languages like Python. First, many of the things I want to automate are most naturally done at the command line. For these, I already know the commands I want to run, and just need to script the logic that glues them together. Second, I mostly want small scripts I can send to colleagues, and not have to worry about whether or not they have Python (or whatever) installed. I do write scripts in Python and Ruby, but they tend to be longer, since they reflect tasks where the data have to be pulled apart and put back together in multiple ways (for example, a dependency-generator for some custom makefiles I maintain). This sort of task favors building up structures in memory, over pipelines, and I use the appropriate tool accordingly. As for the question whether any of these tools are the most important skills a programmer could have, no, I don't think so. As a programmer, your most important skills are in the language you use all the time, the language your "deliverable" is written in. Most people probably don't use the unix tools as their primary programming platform. But those tools support and extend the environment in which we get our "real" programming done. To borrow the woodworking analogy from (I believe) the Pragmatic Programmers, all those articles about the Unix tools are probably the equivalent of articles on keeping your chisels and saws sharp. No, the file you use to keep your chisel sharp isn't your most important tool; your chisel or saw is your most important tool. But the craft of keeping your most important tool sharp can be fun and rewarding in itself. By the way, speed is never an issue with any of the scripts I'm likely to run. But if it was, I doubt Python would be faster, since those scripts involve a lot of calls on system resources.