A love letter to ruby and rails

I’ve built a lot of stuff during my career, and I’ve used a lot of different technologies to do it. I’m highly proficient with JavaScript (including React), Python, and Ruby. I’ve built microservices and monoliths. All these things have great merit and have been a joy to work with (well, except microservices). But of all these there is one that always leaves me impressed and excited, and that’s Ruby.

I love JavaScript and React, and Python is extremely versatile, but every time I have the opportunity to build something in Ruby I feel joy. I’m constantly having “wow” moments where I’m reminded how easy it is to write it. It’s like riding a bike on grass then reaching a paved trail, where suddenly a great deal of the resistance disappears and you can just focus on reaching your destination. If you’re building a web application this feeling is compounded when using Rails.

In my experience working in other technologies, 50-80% of my time is spent solving technology problems and what’s left is used to solve actual business problems. These technology problems are tasks such as building out database connections, setting up boilerplate, writing build pipelines, etc. Meanwhile with Rails I’ve noticed I get to spend spent the vast majority of my time focusing on business logic. I’ve seen several projects where progress was greatly hindered by the technology getting in the way of the solution. In Rails I’ve seen much less of this.

I like to be a champion for the business, I want to solve the customers’ problems and facilitate the growth of the company. Ruby and Rails gives me that power more so than any other technology I’ve used. If you’re a developer or entrepreneur about to start a new endeavor, I highly recommend you consider Ruby for that project. You will find it to be a competitive advantage as you will be able to grow and adapt faster and with fewer resources.

If you’re looking for a good place to start, look at this free online book by Michael Hartl.