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A Rubyist’s Guide to Existential Dread

Jeremy Smith
June 02, 2024
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A Rubyist’s Guide to Existential Dread

The rumored rise of AI. A stagnant hiring market. The long shadow of industry layoffs. It seems like there’s always a threat (or three) on the horizon, and even the bravest of us would be forgiven for feeling some apprehension about the future. So, what’s a Rubyist to think? What’s a Rubyist to do? While I don’t have any guarantees, I do have a couple ideas.

Jeremy Smith

June 02, 2024
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  1. Cra

  2. “Will I still be able to make a living doing

    work I enjoy with people I care about?”
  3. Opportunities Someone should help connect local meetups to devs looking

    for speaking opportunities. Someone should make a Ruby conference geared toward developers with kids. Someone should provide training and support for experienced devs transitioning from other languages.
  4. "In August, I set out to improve the machine learning

    ecosystem for Ruby and wasn’t sure where it would go. Over the next 5 months, I ended up releasing 16 libraries and learned a lot along the way. I wanted to share some of that knowledge and introduce some of the libraries you can now use in Ruby."
  5. I’m happy to announce another round of machine learning gems

    for Ruby. … Ruby is getting better for machine learning. Many popular Python libraries now have Ruby counterparts. They can be used in Ruby scripts, iRuby notebooks, and Rails applications. This should make it easier to do machine learning without leaving your favorite language.
  6. Opportunities Someone should catalog tools in the Laravel community and

    build the missing ones for Rails. Someone should find a way to connect outdated Rails apps to available freelancers who can maintain and upgrade them. Someone should write an in-depth cookbook for real-world web scraping and HTML parsing using Nokogiri.
  7. Opportunities Someone should host a competition to build the same

    web app in multiple languages and stacks with commentary and judging. Someone should make a YouTube show where guests bring a favorite Ruby library and do a guided walkthrough. Someone should start a group to support indie Rubyists learning marketing and sales.
  8. Ship of Theseus rules everything around us, from our bodies

    and communities, to tooling and language. Identity is in continuity.
  9. Better to build con dence in skill and adaptability than

    con dence in market conditions and forecasts.
  10. As bad as you think things are for you, someone

    else has it worse. Lend a hand and make both your lives richer.
  11. There’s no limit to the needs of the world, the

    work to be done, and the ways we can show up and care.
  12. “Will I still be able to make a living doing

    work I enjoy with people I care about?”