Alan Ridlehoover

Hello, Ruby Friends! New episodes of The Ruby on Rails Podcast are going to start rolling out soon! If all goes well, the first new episode should go up next week. The podcast has a brand new host who is very excited to hit the ground running.

Sometimes you need to repeat yourself.

If your codebase were an automobile, what kind would it be? A sports car? Minivan? Pickup? Regardless, if you let complexity sneak into your codebase, you're driving with one foot on the gas, one on the brake. The more complex, the harder you're pushing. Take your foot off the brake! Simplify!

Bumping for visibility, since I posted this at an obscene hour.

"Red, green, refactor" promotes premature abstraction. Ward Cunningham on convincing management to refactor: "I don't. Two estimates—make room for the feature, then add it." Do structural refactor before the next story, not after this one. What I do instead: the.codegardener.com/red-green-pr...

Are you a builder who prioritizes shipping software? Or are you a craftsperson who prioritizes well designed code? It’s a false choice. You get more done with well designed code and tests than you do without. Craftspeople move faster than Builders who eventually grind to a tech debt induced halt.

Have you ever been told by an executive that test coverage past 80% produces diminishing returns? Have you asked them which 20% you should not test? Have they ever given you an answer?

In an era filled with tech dipshits who never developed emotionally past the age of 13 & use their wealth to become odious monsters ... ... listen to Steve Wozniak.

A love letter by XKCD: What are you doing? Lenthening the sunset Pushing back the night Giving me a little more time Here with you. youtu.be/U8F7UNK9jco

TIL: Wubular github.com/RubyElders/wubular > Wubular is a modern re-imagining of Rubular, built with Ruby compiled to WebAssembly. > It lets you compose and test Ruby regular expressions directly in your browser — no backend server required.

Hot take: Developers who are happy to complain about friction within a process, generally don't lift a finger to resolve it.

Hot take: Developers will complain about other people's flaky tests but defer dealing with their own for as long as possible.

Hot take: Developers will complain about a build that takes two minutes longer than they think it should, but will gladly spend two days gold plating something.

A vision statement should be an inspirational postcard from an aspirational future. It should be brief. It should draw a picture. It should make you wish you were there! the.codegardener.com/vision-missi... #management #vision #mission #values

I’m in!!! Are you?

Hot take: The Rails Way™ favors modification over extension.

Software that is designed to be modified is software that is hard to change. Software that is designed to be extended is software that is easy to change.

# My new favorite strategy for getting things done. def actualize(vision) think_big start_small deliver_value earn_trust grow_influence end vision = 1 do actualize(vision) vision += 1 end #ruby #vision #gtd

Thank you for the follow!

@drbragg.dev What’re you doing in early September?

@fito.codegardener.com & I welcomed our first ever guest, Ryan Findley, to The Code Gardener Podcast recently. Hope you enjoy!

Compliments are a reflection of the light you are putting out into the world. Accept them gracefully. Others have a better view of your aura than your inner critic does. (left) What your inner critic sees. (right) What others see.

Compliments are a reflection of the light you are putting out into the world. Accept them graciously by recognizing that other people have a better view of your aura than your inner critic does.

Hi all! 👋 I was laid off and am looking for my next senior front end developer role. I have 19+ years of experience working with small agencies and Fortune 500 companies and focus on writing clean, accessible HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Resume: aubreysambor.com/resume/ Leads/reposts appreciated!

Speakers are slowly being announced, but registration is open now! www.xoruby.com/event/atlanta/

I'm going to be speaking at @xoruby.com Atlanta on September 13th. XO Ruby is a brand-new (traveling) single-day Ruby conference. If you're a Rubyist in the southeastern US, you should check it out! (And if not, take a look at other 5 stops this fall.)

I'm speaking at @xoruby.com in Atlanta, you should come if you care about your team's survivability & the future of our language. 😉 www.xoruby.com/event/atlanta/ Also: first rehearsal of this talk came in at 19m, so I need to sloooooowwwww doooowwwwnnnnnnn

@fito.codegardener.com and I picked up our microphones again a couple of weeks ago! Here's a link in case it flew by in your feed before you could click on it...

@fito.codegardener.com and I are thrilled to be speaking at SF RubyConf this November! So many amazing speakers! Hope to see you there!

The RailsConf 2025 talks are up on the Ruby Central channel on YouTube! Here's @fito.codegardener.com and I giving our talk called "Derailing Our Application: How and Why We're Decoupling Our Code from Rails." www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFG...

The #RailsConf 2025 talks are up on the Ruby Central channel on YouTube, including the lightning talks. Here's my lightning talk, entitled "The Other Side of Fear." (You should really watch them all, but this link is teed up to my talk at 57:55.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=XucQ...

It’s been a minute, but attending the last RailsConf last week had @fito.codegardener.com and I feeling nostalgic and wanting to share…

Won’t you be my Ruby Friend? rubyfriends.app/profiles/KVVY

Pretty good rubric. 👍 www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2025/07...

Thanks to every #RubyFriend that made #RailsConf2025 special. Whether you were there or not. <3 kevinjmurphy.com/posts/railsc...

#RubyFriends @fito.codegardener.com and I with @nodunayo.bsky.social (AKA The Talent) just after RailsConf 2025.

"Smaller things are less complex and easier to test." @alan.codegardener.com at #RailsConf2025

Now @fito.codegardener.com‬ and @alan.codegardener.com‬ are going off the Rails, decoupling Cisco Meraki's code to scale their team and application. #RailsConf2025

Cisco Meraki is such an organization. We're old (2006). We're a large team (1000+ engineers). And, our codebase is huge (4.25+ million lined of Ruby). You may not be that big yet. But, you may be one day! Come listen to @fito.codegardener.com and I as we discuss how we manage all of that.

The weather this time of year in Philly generally changes a lot day to day so take the forecast for #RailsConf with a grain of salt. Here's my suggestions for anyone traveling from outside the east coast:

There's a new episode of the Ode to RailsConf podcast up this morning, with Alan Ridlehoover ( @alan.codegardener.com ) as my latest guest. It's probably one of my most personal episodes given the impact that Alan had on me at RubyConf back in November. www.odetorailsconf.com/2363110/epis...

My next guest on the podcast is Alan Ridlehoover ( @alan.codegardener.com ). I met Alan at RubyConf this past November, and it was because of him that I had a truly amazing final night at that Conference. I hope you'll listen and hear all about it, Monday morning!

San Francisco Ruby Conference on November 19-20: sfruby.com! And you got to stay for Friday, 21, for unofficial events 😎