In this episode, Irina Nazarova, CEO of Evil Martians, shares her unconventional journey from earning a degree in computer science and working in finance to eventually becoming a leader in the Rails community. She discusses her entry into web development via WordPress and WooCommerce, her unfavorable experiences with PHP, and eventual discovery of Ruby on Rails. Irina provides insights into the company's culture, the advantages of using Rails for startups, and the importance of open-source contributions. The conversation also highlights Evil Martians' consulting and product strategies, the importance of company transparency and teamwork, and details about the upcoming San Francisco Ruby Conference.

LINKS

- Evil Martians

- AnyCable

- San Francisco Ruby Conference

- How to do well in consulting (Irina's talk from Balkin Ruby 2024)

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, Ryan and Brendan discuss the importance of documentation within a business and development context. They cover various types of documentation, including internal, user-facing, and code comments, and highlight the necessity of clear communication from story writing to feature documentation. They also share insights on tools and methods for keeping documentation organized and accessible within their teams.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:26 Diving into Documentation

02:48 Defining Documentation

05:12 User Stories and Documentation

08:12 Internal vs External Documentation

15:54 Organizing Documentation

21:09 Centralizing Resources with Trello

23:02 Balancing Multiple Documentation Tools

23:40 Challenges with Search Functionality

24:41 Effective Use of Trello Tags and Labels

27:54 The Importance of Code Comments and Commit Messages

29:28 Rebase vs. Merge: A Developer's Dilemma

30:16 Interactive Rebase: Cleaning Up Commit History

36:02 Concluding Thoughts on Rebase and Merge

- Thoughtbot Rebase Workflow

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, the hosts are joined by Ernesto Tagwerker, founder of Ombuabs and FastRuby.io, a company specializing in Ruby on Rails upgrades as well as AI solutions.

Topics covered include:

- Rails Upgrades

- Technical Debt

- Developer Onboarding and more!

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Ernesto Tagwerker
00:21 Ernesto's Developer Origin Story
01:10 Discovering and Embracing Rails
02:19 Building a Business Around Rails
02:51 Challenges and Solutions in Rails Upgrades
03:40 Client Needs and Service Offerings
06:18 Content Creation and Misconceptions
07:33 Best Practices for Rails Upgrades
10:34 Open Source Contributions and Tools
13:32 AI and Machine Learning Initiatives
18:27 Developer Experience and Technical Debt
29:46 Advice for Solo Developers
33:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

LINKS

- FastRuby.io

- OmbuLabs

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, Jess Brown, shares his journey from freelance consulting to becoming a Rails developer and business owner. Topics covered include Jess's origins with development and Rails, his roles in his businesses, Bootstrap upgrades, mobile apps and more!

00:00 Introduction to Jess Brown
00:12 Jess's Journey into Development
01:05 Transition to Rails
03:29 Business Ventures and Roles
07:30 Building and Managing Apps
12:46 Challenges and Solutions in Development
16:46 Upgrading and Modernizing
19:34 Bootstrap and Rails Upgrades
20:35 Dependency Management Challenges
23:16 AI in Development and Code Review
27:14 Using Videos for Task and PR Reviews
29:27 Buying and Growing Businesses
34:50 Conclusion and Contact Information

LINKS

- Jess's Blog

- Jess's X/Twitter

- Indie Rails Podcast

- CSePub

- Tract

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, the hosts interview Adrian Marin, the creator of Avo, to discuss his journey from PHP and Node.js to Ruby on Rails. Adrian shares insights into the development of Avo, an internal tools and operations framework for Ruby on Rails apps, and the challenges he faced transitioning from a developer to a business owner. He also touches on the importance of positioning, marketing, and sales in building a successful product. Furthermore, Adrian talks about organizing the Friendly RB conference to foster community and knowledge sharing in the Ruby on Rails ecosystem.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:19 Discovering Ruby on Rails
01:34 The Birth of Avo
03:39 Challenges in Marketing and Sales
04:49 Transitioning from Developer to Business Owner
06:32 Insights on Business Development
08:35 TinySeed and Team Expansion
11:29 Understanding Avo's Use Cases
16:41 Integrating Avo into Existing Apps
17:27 Engineers' Weekend Experimentation
18:26 Building and Transitioning to Avo
20:24 Challenges and Benefits of SaaS
23:23 Managing Feature Requests and Development
27:03 Organizing the Friendly RB Conference
32:42 Conclusion and Contact Information

LINKS

- Adrian's X/Twitter

- Adrian's LinkedIn

- Friendly.rb

- Avo.cool

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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The hosts welcome back Jason Swett to the podcast. He discusses the recent Sin City Ruby conference, including notable highlights such as having Dave Thomas as the keynote speaker. Jason provides insights into the conference's history, the challenges of organizing events in Las Vegas and the financial factors leading to the decision to discontinue Sin City Ruby. Other topics covered include Jason's personal perspective on balancing multiple professional commitments, and some Docker debugging.

00:00 Welcome Back, Jason!
00:09 Sin City Ruby Recap
01:22 Dave Thomas: The Keynote Surprise
03:08 Conference Highlights and Extracurriculars
04:34 Challenges and Future of the Conference
11:13 New Beginnings: Jason's Career Shift
18:36 Improving Developer Onboarding
22:08 Challenges with Docker and Testing
24:12 Exploring Docker Configuration Issues
29:22 Balancing Multiple Projects and Burnout
32:26 Deciding What to Cut
35:48 The Value of Podcasting and Networking
37:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Links:

- Jason's Website

- Jason's Podcast

- Jason's Book

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of the SaaS Marketing Gym, shares the challenges and successes of building SaaS businesses, and her current work coaching technical founders on effective marketing strategies. The conversation also covers various other topics like AI role in marketing content, Rails Upgrades and more.

00:00 Introduction to Colleen Schneller
00:14 Colleen's Journey into Programming
02:49 The Birth of SaaS Marketing Gym
05:32 Challenges and Insights in Marketing
08:44 Tailoring Marketing Strategies for Founders
17:43 The Role of AI in Marketing
19:41 AI Struggles with Nuance
19:56 AI in Cold Emailing: A Disaster Story
20:48 Using AI for Research
22:48 Rails Upgrade Challenges
23:29 Active Storage Encryption Issues
29:07 Front-End Framework Dilemmas
32:25 Maintaining Software vs. Rewriting
33:40 Conclusion and Contact Information

Notes

- Colleen's LinkedIn

- Colleen's X/Twitter

- Colleen's Bluesky

- Ryan's Website

- Brendan's X/Twitter

- Brendan's Bluesky

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In this episode, the hosts explore the challenges of technical debt (tech debt) and delve deeply into effective project management strategies. They highlight the importance of categorizing tasks using a backlog system and explain how they utilize tools like Trello for tracking. Additionally, they explore the PARA method for organizing digital life and managing projects effectively.

00:00 Introduction to Tech Debt
00:11 Defining Tech Debt
00:20 Performance Issues as Tech Debt
02:36 Bugs vs. Design Defects
03:27 Prioritizing and Managing Tech Debt
06:20 Organizing the Backlog
07:05 Using Trello for Project Management
15:19 The PARA Method
19:09 Daily Workflow and Prioritization
23:01 Final Thoughts on Tech Debt

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