So I went back to college this fall and "Java basics" is one of the mandatory subjects. Now, as an intermediate ruby dev, you'd think that there's no reason to sit through those classes, just brush up on the syntax and go code it all quickly. Wrong.

You either know the java.util.* stuff or you end up doing algebra, implementing search & sort by yourself, etc etc.

Now, I'm not whining, I just want to say that after you get used to ruby and it's rich core classes, Java seems like a stone age again. And then you realize the whole concept behind "ruby makes programmers happy" and that it has really been implemented to some considerable level. And you may never feel this unless you get this experience of having to re-learn one of your "old" languages.

Long story short: do a little ruby and you get a serious WTF moment when you realize that you don't have Array.sort readily available for you whenever, whereever, however.

I’m sharing this in the spirit of reflection. I still think Ruby itself is a joy to write.

I’ve loved Ruby for two decades, but I’ve decided to take a step back. The language is still beautiful, but the leadership around it isn’t.

I wrote a bit about how I got here and where I’ll be focusing instead:
https://sleepingpotato.com/taking-a-step-back-from-ruby/

Curious how others who have been around the Ruby community for a while are feeling about things these days.

My favorite language is Go and I tend to prefer statically typed languages. That being said I have a project that I want to build that I think Ruby could be a good choice for. I was wondering if there are any good reasons to learn ruby if you have no intention of using rails.

I'm a heavy Neovim user. Of course, I run a lot of Ruby things inside the editor. Yet, I couldn't get happy with the official Ruby provider. So I wrote me my own one. Now, I'm using it daily for several months and every single day I'm glad I wrote it. In case anybody likes to have a look at it, it's available at https://github.com/BertramScharpf/ruby-nvim.

Asked a question before but rewording it. To be clear I am liking Ruby as I go along with it. But haven't really seen any job postings for Ruby. Thinking about switching to another language like Java if there aren't any Ruby job postings out there. Thanks.

I want to learn Ruby, I'm going to start reading a book since there aren't many resources to learn like in other languages, and since it's my first programming language I've been thinking if it's worth learning pseudo code first or starting with Ruby, what do you think?I want to learn Ruby, I'm going to start reading a book since there aren't many resources to learn like in other languages, and since it's my first programming language I've been thinking if it's worth learning pseudo code first or starting with Ruby, what do you think?

Hey folks — I’m a backend developer working mostly with Ruby, and I’m trying not to fall behind with all the AI stuff happening.

Is anyone’s company actively using Claude (or similar) in day-to-day engineering work (full features)? If yes: what’s actually working, and what feels overhyped?

Also, are you personally worried about how fast this is moving, or more excited than concerned?

Finally: what are you learning to stay relevant as a backend dev — prompt/workflow skills, RAG, evals, agents, LLM fundamentals, or something else? I keep hearing “Generative AI” vs “LLMs” and I’m not sure what’s worth focusing on first.

Would love real-world experiences and advice.