My Ruby Story

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Noah Gibbs This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Noah Gibbs. Noah works currently at AppFolio as their Ruby Fellow, where he does a lot of measuring and writing about Ruby performance. He also writes a lot for Ruby Weekly about Ruby performance. He first got into programming when was in the third grade and he got to use an Apple II in class. In class, they had to draw on graph paper and then “program” what they drew on their computer, and this fascinated him. They also touch on what led him to Ruby, why he fell in love with it, and what he is most proud of contributing to the Ruby community. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Noah intro
• What does AppFolio do?
• Works a lot on Ruby and open source
• How did you first get into programming?
• Has always been fascinated with computers
• Apple IIe
• Nothing beats complete boredom when it comes to programming
• How did you get into writing professional Ruby code?
• Went to college for computers
• C and C++
• Web browsers
• Looked into web programming
• Ruby on Rails 15-minute blog video
• Ruby on Rails
• Learned databases
• What was it about Ruby that got you excited?
• Why he began to hate systems programming
• Programming to make a useful application
• Building deep device software
• Making stuff for people that aren’t programmers is hard, but gratifying
• What are you most proud of contributing to the Ruby community?
• Rebuilding Rails
• And much, much more!

Links:

• AppFolio
• Ruby
• Ruby Weekly
• Ruby on Rails
• Ruby on Rails 15-minute blog video
• Rebuilding Rails
• @codefolio
• Noah’s GitHub
• Engineering.AppFolio.com
• @AppfolioEng

Picks: Charles

• Sling TV
• Timeless
• Amazing Race
• Black Mirror

Noah

• Aaron Rutten Art Tutorials
• Parslet
• Fondant Potatoes

Panel: Charles Max Wood   Guest: Josh Greenwood   This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Josh Greenwood. Josh was recently on Ruby Rogues and he works for a consulting company called Test Double, where he works remotely with clients all across the country. He first got into programming because he was always around computers because of his Dad, and he always loved playing video games. His first real exposure to programming was when he found an HTML book on his Dad’s bookshelf and he used it to build a website. They talk about what led him to Ruby, what made him fall in love with programming, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Josh intro
• Ruby Rogues Episode 347
• Test Double
• How did you first get into programming?
• Grew up around computers
• Built a website based off a HTML book
• Scripting for video games
• Geocities
• Exposure to the programming world
• International Business degree
• Didn’t always want to program as a career
• Apriss
• Ruby and Rails
• Freelancing job
• Learned Ruby at internships in college
• What made you find a love for programming?
• What drew you in to Ruby?
• Ruby’s general approachability
• Loved the Ruby community
• What are you proud of contributing to the community?
• What are you workn on now?
• Recent talk at Code PaLOUsa
• Learning Elm
• And much, much more!

Links: 

• Ruby Rogues Episode 347
• Test Double
• Apriss
• Ruby
• Rails
• Code PaLOUsa
• Elm
• Josh’s GitHub
• @JoshTGreenwood
• Test Double blog

Picks: Charles

• Ruby Hack
• Airbrake
• Rollbar
• DevChat.tv YouTube
• ScreenFlow

Josh

• The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg
• The Bullet Journal 

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Marla Brizel This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Marla Brizel. Marla works at Test Double and has been programming full time for the past four years. She first got into programming when she got a job at a startup where they helped her learn how to program for herself and she fell in love with it. They talk about her background as a project manager and the importance of empathy for the user. They then touch on how she got into Ruby and things that she is particularly proud of contributing to the Ruby community. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Marla intro
• How did you first get into programming?
• Has been working in tech for the past decade
• Working at a startup
• What was it about coding made you want to make the switch?
• Likes that there are always more puzzles to solve
• You can always be learning new things in the programming world
• Get a Coder Job Course
• Code is the easy part of the job
• How programming has progressed over the years
• Test Double
• Project management background
• How did you wind up as a project manager?
• Building empathy for the user
• How did you get into Ruby?
• Girl Develop It
• Why Ruby?
• Ruby reads like English
• How did you wind up at Test Double?
• The value of conferences
• What have you done with Ruby that you are proud of?
• Denver Startup Week
• Ruby on Rails
• Elections
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Test Double
• Get a Coder Job Course
• Ruby
• Girl Develop It
• Denver Startup Week
• @MarlaBrizel
• Marla’s GitHub
• MarlaBrizel.com

Picks: Charles

• TripIt
• NG conf
• MicroConf
• RubyHack
• Microsoft Build
• Podcast Movement
• Get a Job Course
• “Ruby Rants” coming soon

Marla

• Vokl Aura Skis
• dry-rb
• GitX
• Silvercar
• Denver Airport Train
• Denver Startup Week

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Mindaugas Mozūras This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Mindaugas Mozūras. Mindaugas is from Lithuania and currently works at Vinted. He started about 5 ½ years ago as a software developer writing Ruby and now he the head of engineering at Vinted. He also has written an open source project called Pronto. He first got into programming when he was mesmerized by his father’s work computer and always grew up playing games that had to do with building things. They also touch on how he got into Ruby, what made him fall in love it, how he got his first Ruby job, and what he is working on now. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Mindaugas intro
• Pronto open source project
• Always focused on the best way to solve problems
• Communication is key
• How did you first get into programming?
• His father’s computer at work got him into computers
• Class in school that taught Pascal
• How have things changed since you first started?
• Didn’t see programming as a career at first
• Programming didn’t seem like a “serious” career choice
• Studied software engineering in college
• How did you get into Ruby?
• Listened to podcasts and blogs and heard about Ruby
• Ruby looked to be where all the fun things were happening
• Nancy open source project
• What was it about Ruby that inspired you?
• Loved Ruby’s succinctness
• How he got his first Ruby job
• What are you proud of doing in the Ruby community?
• What are you doing now?
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Vinted
• Ruby
• Pronto
• Pascal
• Nancy
• Mindaugas’s GitHub
• @mmozuras
• CodingFearlessly.com

Picks: Charles

• Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden
• The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran
• Get a Coder Job Course

Mindaugas

• The Expanse (8 Book Series) by James S. A. Corey
• The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt
• The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Justin Gordon This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Justin Gordon. Justin first got introduced to programming when he was a kid playing video games and in Jr. High when he took some Basic programming classes. By the time he was in High School, he was learning Pascal. He has always been interested in pursuing programming except for a small time in college when he thought he wanted to pursue investment banking. He first got into Ruby when he went to a meetup and found a startup who were using Ruby on Rails. They also talk about working remotely as well as ShakaCode. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• How did you first get into programming?
• Basic and Pascal
• Fell out of programming in college
• 4th dimension
• Never took an official computer class after High School until after college
• Studied Applied Math at Harvard
• Harvard taught him the skills he never learned as a child
• What was is that made you come back to programming?
• Getting a Mac got him back into programming
• Have to love programming to want to do it for the rest of your life
• How did you find Ruby?
• Rails was more intuitive
• Rails is what brought him into the community
• Found it to be easier to use
• How did you end up in Hawaii?
• The ability to telecommute
• Windsurfing
• Great place to work and live
• Ruby history
• Used articles and videos to leanr Ruby
• GORUCO
• ShakaCode
• Doing remote work
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Ruby on Rails
• Ruby
• ShakaCode
• @ShakaCode
• ShakaCode GitHub
• GORUKO
• Justin’s GitHub
• @RailsonMaui
• Forum.ShakaCode.com

Picks: Charles

• Views on Vue
• React Round Up
• Forum.DevChat.tv

Justin

• Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker PhD
• The Kevin Rose Show Episode
• Zoom
• Mast.ly

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Trae Robrock This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Trae Robrock. Trae founded and is currently the CTO of Green Bits which builds POS software for the legal cannabis industry. They have been in business for about 4 years now and are growing as the cannabis industry does. He first got into programming started when he was growing up and was always around computers. He started off writing clients for mIRC where he would write chat bots and code. He got into Ruby when he found that Twitter was written in Rails and noticed that he should probably learn about it so he could get a job after college. Now, he’s focusing on Green Bits and growing his team so that he can make it a successful business.  In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Trae intro
• How did you first get into programming?
• Grew up around computers
• mIRC Chat client
• How did you get into web development and Ruby?
• Web development was the only free version of programming available
• HTML and PHP
• Got into Ruby in college
• CakePHP
• Ruby on Rails
• Job at Outright
• CakePHP vs Rails
• What have you done with Ruby that you are proud of?
• Building DSLs
• Making code more accessible to people
• Automation in coding
• DSL use case
• What are you working on now
• Tries to get into the code 
• What resources have you found that help you?
• Relationship management
• How do you learn how to hire the right people?
• A lot of trial and error
• Philosophy of hire quickly and fire quickly
• And much, much more!

Links: 

• Ruby
• Green Bits
• mIRC
• PHP
• CakePHP
• Ruby on Rails
• Outright
• @TRobrock
• Trae’s YouTube Channel
• Trae’s Instagram

Picks: Charles

• Hunting Hitler
• Podcast Blog 
• React Dev Summit
• Ruby Dev Summit
• Have well-reasoned and calm conversations
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Trae

• Interactor Gem
• Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Trae’s YouTube Channel

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Derek Prior This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Derek Prior. Derek speaks at conferences more often and is now a development director at Thought Bot. He first got into programming when was 7 or 8 when he got an Apple IIGS for Christmas and he started messing around with writing basic code. This really got him interested in how video games and systems worked behind the scenes and led to his interest in programming. In high school, he took programming classes and found he was actually good at it and decided to pursue programming in college. Once he was hired at Thought Bot, his developing skills really took off and he has been there for almost five years now. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Derek intro
• Being a good developer doesn’t mean you’re a good developer manager
• How did you first get into programming?
• Apple IIGS as first computer
• Prodigy and AOL
• Visual Basic
• Basic and Pascal
• How did you get into being a full-time developer?
• IBM and Microsoft internships in college
• Learned Java in college
• How did you find Ruby?
• Ruby on Rails
• How he found Thought Bot
• Development skills took off at Thought Bot
• Likes to stay at a job for a long time
• How do you evaluate companies to see if you want to work there?
• How do you create the right environment at work?
• The importance of empowering employees
• Use company values to decide upon tough decisions
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Ruby
• Thought Bot
• Visual Basic
• Pascal
• Java
• Rails
• @DerekPrior
• Derek’s GitHub

Picks: Charles

• Ruby Dev Summit
• Ruby Hack

Derek

• Base.cs podcast
• Lucky Framework
• The Weekend Woodworker

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Ben Orenstein This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Ben Orenstein. Ben recently just got a new job refactoring Rails apps, runs a podcast, called The Art of Product, and just finished up The Code Quality Challenge. He first got into programming when he was a Senior in high school and took a computing class at the local college where they taught him C, and he really fell in love with programming. He is really proud of his contribution to the education side of the programming world and enjoys being able to teach really complicated concepts. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• The Art of Product Podcast
• The Code Quality Challenge
• How did you first get into to programming?
• Gorilla.bas
• Cue Basic
• First taught C
• How did you get into programming with Ruby?
• Studied Computer Science in college
• IT consulting
• Worked with Ruby at Dana Farber Cancer Institute
• Ruby Pragmatic Programmers book
• What have you done with Ruby that you’re proud of?
• Rails apps
• Thought Bot
• Really enjoys teaching programming
• Giant Robots Podcast
• What are you working on now?
• Refractory Rails Course
• Mackey
• Haskell
• His newsletter
• You learn so much when you watch someone work and see the process live
• And much, much more!

Links:

• The Art of Product Podcast
• The Code Quality Challenge
• Dana Farber Cancer Institute
• Ruby
• Ruby Pragmatic Programmers Book
• Rails
• Thought bot
• Giant Robots Podcast
• Refactoring Rails Course
• Mackey
• Haskell
• Ben’s Newsletter
• @R00K

Picks: Charles

• Creating a Blockchain with JavaScript
• Stimulus
• Dave Thomas Elixir Course

Ben

• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• An Outsider's Guide to Statically Typed Functional Programming by Bryan Marick

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Mike Gehard This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Mike Gehard. Mike currently works for Pivotal working in the Platform Acceleration Lab. He first got into programming when he was 10 working with his Commodore 64, but really stepped up his interest after he graduated with his Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and started working at a petrochemical refining research company, where it was very computer based. They discuss how he found his way to Ruby and how easy it is to create things with it, as well as the things that he has contributed to the Ruby community that he is proud of. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Pivotal
• Platform Acceleration Lab
• How did you first get into to programming?
• Commodore 64
• C++ in Undergrad
• Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering
• Master’s in Software Engineering
• Consulting in Chicago using C++
• What is your take on the state of CS education?
• CS degree is not necessary, but offers many benefits
• It’s important to have the ability to be analytical as a programmer
• Scala
• Figure out how you learn best, and leverage that going forward
• Get a Coder Job Course
• Rails
• How did you get into Ruby?
• Rails doesn’t take a lot of “banging” to get something to fall out the other end being useful
• What have you contributed to the Ruby community that you’re proud of?
• What are you working on now?
• Kotlin Language
• IntelliJ IDEA
• Giving conference talks
• Microservices
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Pivotal
• Platform Acceleration Lab
• Scala
• Get a Coder Job Course
• Rails
• Ruby
• Kotlin
• IntelliJ IDEA
• DevChat.tv YouTube
• @MikeGehard

Picks: Charles

• Masterbuilt Smoker
• SlowCooker
• Elixir Mix Podcast coming soon

Mike

• Kotlin Programming Language
• Building Microservices by Sam Newman

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Mikel Lindsaar This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Mikel Lindsaar. Mikel started a Ruby on Rails consultancy in 2010 and is most well known for being the original author of Mail gem. He first got into programming working as a volunteer for a church where he built a Rails parishioner management system. This experience led him to create the Mail gem, which has really made him well-known in the community. He always like the idea of being able to control and create something, and this has definitely influenced his programming career. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• How did you first get introduced into programming?
• Mail gem
• Coders are humans too
• Rails
• Issues with his e-mail system
• Don’t have to be a seasoned coder to create something amazing
• Blocks
• Taught himself Ruby
• PHP
• How did you get into coding?
• DOS Manual
• Coding webpages for the ISP
• Rails is a very mature ecosystem now
• You don’t need a lot of different frameworks to create a business app
• The versatility of Rails
• Customers don’t care what things are built in
• Rails with a sprinkle of JavaScript
• Stimulus
• Use the appropriate technology
• And much, much more!

Links: 

• DevChat.Tv YouTube
• ReIneractive
• @Lindsaar
• Lindsaar.net

Picks: Charles

• AstroReality

Mikel

• Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
• Marble Machine by Wintergatan