Yes, You Can Work on Rails & any other Gem

Have you ever wanted to dig into the Rails source, but it just seems too daunting?

Good news! In this session, we'll look at practical tools to level you up, so you can make it happen. Even better, these navigation tools work for any gem & your day-to-day codebase too.

We'll use live demos to engage with real code from gems & Rails. We'll improve our ability to sight-read code & identify patterns within swiftly. You'll see how to refine your learning process so it yields compounding results to make you a better developer & teammate.

Transcript

1. Yes, You Can work on Rails & any other Gem
2. let's make this RailsConf last
3. Hi, it's Kasper
4. kaspth.com  Domain Modeling  Training beyond the usual
5. We'll cover How I build skills & you can too
6. We're focusing on the long-term
7. We won't cover the mechanics of contributing
8. After this talk More confidence to explore Bump your information throughput by 20%
9. Exciting Preamble incoming!!
10. Code is just encoded communication
11. The really good stuff happens in communication
12. We need overhead & capacity to see tradeoffs
13. But if we're too fixed on code we'll never get there
14. We miss out if we're stuck on the mechanics
15. Compare this to speaking a language
16. Programming languages are languages
17. grammar & vocabulary
18. Your process must focus on grammar & vocabulary
19. Building that bridge between your known and the unknown
20. Improve your technical literacy to increase your impact
21. achieve escape velocity
22. How I can help you
23. I've been in & around & ahead of Rails
24. in Rails #14 core team 20162022 1750 commits thousands of PR reviews/merges I've screwed up a ton doing this too
25. around Rails kredis #1 globalid #1 rails-html-sanitizer #2 rails-dom-testing #1 BulletTrain gems nice_partials #1 showcase-rails #1
26. ahead of Rails oaken active_record-associated_object active_job-performs action_controller-stashed_redirects
27. What drives me
28. The fun of expanding what's out there
29. It's essentially the joy of using a language
30. my integrative approach for upskilling while working
31. we don't really work that differently,
32. …we just work in a way that sets us up for the future
33. bite-sized learning knowing your tools 1. parsing code faster 2. using network effects 3. compound exercises 4.
34. it's genuinely fun
35. 1. knowing your tools
36. you're the most important tool
37. I always have a console open irb – bin/rails console –
38. look things up in the index rubyapi.org – api.rubyonrails.org – for when you encounter a new "word" –
39. getting into the code bundle open activerecord – debugger or p – bundle pristine activerecord –
40. use method p User.method(:has_many) # ⇒ source_location 1. method(:render).super_method.super_method... 2. [].method(:each).source_location # ⇒ nil 3.
41. knowing where to look & use it
42. 2. parsing code faster
43. exposure not just reading, but engaging
44. blast yourself with new source files and not feel overwhelmed
45. memory recall not retention
46. build familiarity over time
47. with language we know this
48. experience active, not passive
49. only looking at words won't get you there
50. internalize
51. internalizing can feel more vulnerable
52. you're more exposed because you're making the choice to care
53. take ownership
54. 3. using network effects
55. learn new things through contrast with what you know
56. recently enum :status, %i[ active archived ]. index_by(&:itself)
57. run it in the console "yo".itself # => "yo"
58. change the input { a: :b }.itself # => { a: :b } [1].itself # => [1] nil.itself # => nil
59. use something else you know str = "yo" str.itself.object_id # => 10240 str.itself.object_id # => 10240
60. keep going str = "yo" str.dup # => "yo" str.dup.object_id # => 79100 str.dup.object_id # => 80480
61. compare & contrast
62. what you know helps you poke and prod the next
63. staying scrappy
64. 1. knowing your tools 2. parsing code faster
65. it's navigating how you navigate
66. 4. compound exercises
67. Casey Johnston LIFTOFF
68. greater gains in shorter time
69. example: squats
70. also helps your coordination & balance
71. the fact that you had to coordinate all these things together at once, improves you faster
72. in programming, you want to blend things to get extra benefits
73. exposure to open source
74. each new thing becomes a springboard
75. knowing your tools 1. parsing code faster 2. using network effects 3.
76. use rabbit holes
77. you'll train your discernment
78. progress not exhaustion
79. same as language acquisition
80. take breaks, but keep going
81. hit bedrock
82. shorten the next rabbit hole
83. helpers_for_modification. module_eval(&block)
84. all this bite-sized learning
85. becomes intuition
86. grammar & vocabulary
87. you need to focus your accuracy
88. develop context over time
89. the people who can do the things you want to do
90. it's not so much smarts it's context
91. I built that context with this integrative approach
92. so those things are way more in reach
93. it'll take time, keep going
94. kaspth.com  Domain Modeling  Training beyond the usual
95. live demo
96. I'll try to explain something in Rails your choice