Episode 54 - Live (at the time) from RailsConf 2025
The Ruby community's most recognizable podcast voices gather for a heartfelt discussion at the final RailsConf in Philadelphia, sharing wisdom that extends far beyond technical topics into the realm of human connection.From conquering social anxiety at conferences to building meaningful relationships in tech, this panel digs into what makes the Ruby community special. Drew Bragg of Code and the Coding Coders who Code it confesses that despite his outgoing appearance, he still struggles with social interactions, while Stephanie Min from The Bike Shed offers practical conversation starters that anyone can use. Chris Oliver of Remote Ruby reminds us of our built-in connection: "We're all here for the same reason—to talk about Ruby and Rails."The hosts reveal the secret sauce behind their podcasting journeys—how they started, how they find guests, and what keeps their content fresh after dozens or even hundreds of episodes. David Hill shares how his Ode to RailsConf podcast transformed from an idea floated at last year's conference into over 50 episodes, demonstrating how quickly passion projects can flourish in this supportive community.Perhaps most touching are the shared memories that have shaped their Ruby journeys: Drew keynoting with Matz in the audience, Stephanie's late-night cookie mission, Chris's first encounter with a listener who recognized his voice, and David's experience contributing to open source during Hack Day. These stories underline how technical communities become chosen families through shared experiences.Whether you're a seasoned Rubyist or considering joining this welcoming ecosystem, this conversation offers a window into why people stay in Ruby despite the rise of newer technologies—it's the people and connections that transcend the code. Listen for practical advice on starting conversations, launching your own podcast, or simply finding your place in a technical community that feels like coming home.Want to experience this special community yourself? Attend a Ruby conference, join a meetup, or reach out to any of these podcast hosts online—they're just as approachable as they sound.Send us some love. HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleAutoscaling that actually works. Take control of your cloud hosting.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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Episode 53 - Joel Hawksley
When does a framework reach maturity? For Joel Hawksley, lead maintainer of GitHub's ViewComponent framework, the answer comes with the upcoming fourth major release – a milestone that marks not just new features, but a transition to long-term support mode.Joel takes us behind the scenes of his seven-year journey at GitHub, where an idea sketched on an airplane has evolved into a critical part of how the platform renders its interfaces. With candid insights, he explains why ViewComponent is now considered feature-complete, and the philosophical challenges that remain unresolved around CSS and JavaScript integration within component-based Rails applications.The conversation delves into fascinating territory around GitHub's technical architecture decisions. Joel articulates the clear dividing line between interfaces better suited for React versus Rails, based on his experience building complex UIs like GitHub's merge box. "The ability for a new engineer to come in and modify that code in React is an order of magnitude better," he explains, revealing how pragmatism rather than dogma drives technology choices at scale.Perhaps most compelling are Joel's reflections on accessibility – work he led for years at GitHub. He reveals how accessibility requirements fundamentally reshape engineering approaches, forcing consistency and systematic thinking that might otherwise be overlooked. With 80% of top e-commerce sites facing accessibility lawsuits in recent years, these considerations are becoming unavoidable for developers at companies of all sizes.As a new member of GitHub's Ruby architecture team, Joel also shares fascinating perspectives on Ruby's evolution. He articulates the tension between adding safety guardrails to the language while preserving the flexibility and joy that attracted developers in the first place. "Is it better to take something that is elegant and beautiful and flexible and put it in handcuffs, or is it better to go use a tool that was built with that in mind?" he asks, in a moment of philosophical clarity that will resonate with Ruby developers everywhere.Whether you're using ViewComponent, building accessible interfaces, or thinking about Ruby's future, this episode offers rare insights from someone who has spent years navigating these waters at one of the world's most prominent software platforms. Check out ViewComponent 4.0 RC1 today and share your feedback before the final release!Send us some love. HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleAutoscaling that actually works. Take control of your cloud hosting.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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Episode 52 - Vladimir Dementyev
What happens when you put Rails in a browser? Vladimir Dementyev (Vova) is pushing WebAssembly to its limits by creating an interactive Rails playground that runs entirely client-side. This groundbreaking project aims to eliminate the frustrating installation barriers that often discourage newcomers from trying Ruby on Rails."I asked myself the question - can I run Rails on WASM? And that's when you feel yourself like a pilgrim software engineer, experiencing something for the first time that no one ever experienced," Vova shares. The project isn't just a technical curiosity but serves a vital educational purpose - allowing anyone to learn Rails through the official tutorial without wrestling with Ruby version managers or environment setup.As principal engineer at Evil Martians, Vova balances multiple innovative projects simultaneously. Beyond Rails on WASM, he's organizing the first San Francisco Ruby Conference (coming November 2024), building a custom open-source CFP application, expanding AnyCable to support Laravel, and updating his technical book "Ruby on Rails Applications." His creative problem-solving approach extends to production environments too, where techniques developed for experimental projects help solve real client challenges like making libvips fork-safe for high-performance web servers.Vova's philosophy on productivity is refreshingly practical: work when inspiration strikes rather than forcing creativity during arbitrary hours. "If I have no desire to sit at my desk and stare at the laptop, I'm not going to do that. I wait for the moment to come, and then I sit and work, and it's really efficient."Ready to see what Ruby and Rails can do in previously impossible environments? Follow Vova's work, attend his RailsConf talk, or join the growing San Francisco Ruby community to witness how Ruby's flexibility continues to break new ground in unexpected ways.Send us some love. HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleAutoscaling that actually works. Take control of your cloud hosting.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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Episode 51 - Chris Oliver
The last RailsConf ever is coming to Philadelphia this summer, and co-chair Chris Oliver joins us to pull back the curtain on what's sure to be a historic gathering for the Rails community.Chris reveals how the programming committee curated an exceptional lineup from hundreds of submissions, balancing nostalgic looks at Rails' 18-year journey with cutting-edge technical content. You'll hear why Philadelphia's walkable layout, incredible food scene (Reading Terminal Market gets particular praise), and Fourth of July celebrations make it the perfect host city for this final RailsConf hurrah.Beyond the sessions themselves, Chris and I explore what truly makes tech conferences special—those irreplaceable in-person connections. Whether you're a seasoned Rails veteran or relatively new to the framework, the hallway conversations, shared meals, and spontaneous problem-solving sessions offer exponentially more value than what appears on the official schedule. We both share how these gatherings have accelerated our careers and sparked lasting professional relationships.The conversation takes an enlightening turn as Chris opens up about his current technical challenges, including the complexities of testing Hotwire applications and designing flexible API wrappers for payment processing systems. His insights on balancing specificity with adaptability when building reusable libraries offer valuable perspective for anyone writing code meant to be shared.This episode serves both as an enthusiastic invitation to join the Ruby community in Philadelphia and a thoughtful exploration of why in-person events remain vital in our increasingly remote world. Supporting RailsConf isn't just about personal growth—it's about strengthening the Ruby ecosystem that has supported so many developers throughout their careers.Ready to book your ticket for this historic event? Don't miss our podcast panel at RailsConf—come experience our conversations live and in person!Links: RailsConfGoRailsLearn Hotwireexcid3 on BlueSkySend us some love. HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleAutoscaling that actually works. Take control of your cloud hosting.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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Episode 50 - Adam Fortuna
Swimming against the current sometimes leads to unexpected treasures. In this fascinating conversation, Adam Fortuna reveals how migrating Hardcover—a social network for readers with 30,000 users—from Next.js back to Ruby on Rails delivered surprising performance improvements and development simplicity.The journey begins with Adam explaining how Hardcover originated as a response to Goodreads shutting down their API. As a longtime Rails developer who initially chose Next.js for its server-side rendering capabilities, Adam found himself drawn back to Rails once modern tools made it viable to combine Rails' backend strengths with React's frontend interactivity. The migration wasn't a complete rewrite—they preserved their React components while replacing GraphQL with ActiveRecord—and unexpectedly saw significant improvements in page load speeds and SEO rankings.At the heart of this technical evolution is Inertia.js, which Adam describes as "the missing piece for Rails for a long time." This elegant solution allows direct connections between Rails controllers and React components without duplicating routes, creating a seamless developer experience. We dive into the challenges they faced, particularly with generating Open Graph images and handling API abuse, and how they solved these problems with pragmatic hybrid approaches.The conversation takes an exciting turn as Adam discusses their work on book recommendation engines, combining collaborative filtering with content analysis to help readers discover their next favorite book. As someone currently enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (described as "RPG mixed with Hitchhiker's Guide"), Adam's passion for both books and elegant technical solutions shines throughout.Listen in as we explore how going against conventional wisdom sometimes leads to better outcomes, and discover why Hardcover is now being open-sourced to invite community collaboration. Whether you're interested in Rails, JavaScript frameworks, or book recommendations, this episode offers valuable insights into making technical decisions based on real-world results rather than following trends.Linkshttps://hardcover.app/blog/part-1-how-we-fell-out-of-love-with-next-js-and-back-in-love-with-ruby-on-rails-inertia-jshttps://adamfortuna.com/https://bsky.app/profile/adamfortuna.comSend us some love.HoneybadgerHoneybadger is an application health monitoring tool built by developers for developers.JudoscaleAutoscaling that actually works. Take control of your cloud hosting.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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