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Thoughtful AI for the
Rubyist
A Discovery in Three Acts
Christine Seeman
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DISCOVERY →
↓
🎸 Guitar
CONFLICT
↓
⛪ Priests
→ RESOLUTION
↓
🔮 Oracle
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Discovery
Act 1
What can this strange device be?
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You love Ruby because it is a
delight to program in.
But AI feels... different.
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound
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Ruby code (clean, readable)
vs
AI output (verbose, unclear)
It’s got wires that vibrate, and give music
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"I designed Ruby for humans, not for machines."
—Yukihiro Matsumoto, aka Matz
What can this thing be that I found?
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Ruby's Community Core Values
MINASWAN
● Matz is Nice And So We Are Nice
● Developer happiness
● Readability
● Expressiveness
See how it sings like a sad heart
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And joyously screams out its pain
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Am I becoming dependent on a crutch?
Am I cheating by using AI to write code?
Sounds that build high like a mountain
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What the Ruby Community Says
● Ruby developers are split on AI
● The Dependency Dilemma
● Ruby-Specific Challenges
● Persistent Concerns
Or notes that fall gently, like rain.
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Regular users (Daily/Weekly)
38%
2.1/5
AI can’t handle Metaprogramming, lowest rated
60%
AI hallucinations and incorrect code
I can’t wait to share this new wonder
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"Having someone to talk to about my
ideas and where I want to go. It helps
me think things through and validate
my ideas... It's like having a blog post
custom made to my situation."
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What if we could have both?
Working faster while building
deeper knowledge
AI that enhances our
craftsmanship rather than
replacing it
The Ruby community collaborative spirit
applied to human-AI partnership
The people will all see its light
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DISCOVERY ✅ →
↓
🎸 Guitar
CONFLICT
↓
⛪ Priests
→ RESOLUTION
↓
🔮 Oracle
Let them all make their
own music
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Conflict
Act 2
⛪
I know it’s most unusual
To come before you so…
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Where AI Excels with Ruby
✅ ✅
🥳✅🥳
✅
Code generation Refactoring Documentation
Testing
✅
Git Commits
⛪
Yes, we know
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Where AI Struggles
🫣 😩
🫤 👎
Metaprogramming Ruby idioms/style
Rails conventions Blocks and iterators
⛪
It’s nothing new
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Code That Doesn't Feel Ruby-like
⛪
It’s just a waste of time
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Thoughtful Prompting
aka
Teaching AI to speak Ruby
⛪
We have no need for ancient ways
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Prompting with Purpose
Before: "Write a method to get users" ❌ Ineffective (Vague)
After: "You are a senior Ruby developer following the Ruby Style Guide.
Context: Rails 7.1 application
Task: Write a method to find a user by ID
Requirements:
- Follow Rails conventions
- Use idiomatic Ruby patterns
- Prefer unless over if for flow control
- Handle missing user gracefully" ✅ Effective Specific Context
⛪
The world is doing fine
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Prompting with Purpose
❌ Ineffective: Write a commit message
✅ Effective (Convention + Context):
Generate a conventional commit message:
Context: User authentication
Changes: Added password reset validation,
fixed token expiration bug, added RSpec tests
Format: ():
Use imperative mood, 50 chars max for the subject line
⛪
Another toy will help destroy
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Advanced Prompting
⛓ Chain-of-thought: "Explain your reasoning step-by-step"
📏 Constraint-based: "Refactor this method to make it 5 lines or less"
❓Error analysis: "Spot potential errors in this code"
✅ Verification Prompting: "Does this feel Ruby-like?"
⚠ Avoid Negative Instructions
🐣 Beginner-friendly: "Explain this concept like I'm a beginner"
⛪
The elder race of man
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— Avdi Grimm
"To work faster I leveraged
an LLM as my hands"
⛪
Forget about your silly whim
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The Hidden Cost - Context Switching
🧠 Human limitation: We can only truly focus on one thing at a time
🧐 AI creates context switching: Jumping between writing code and evaluating
AI suggestions
The cost: Each switch takes 15-25 minutes to regain deep focus
🧠 Research backing: 20% of cognitive capacity lost during context switches
(PMC Research 2023)
🧐 Brain imaging: fMRI shows frontal and parietal lobes respond to unexpected
task switching (Wake Forest 2024)
⛪
It doesn't fit the plan
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Survey Dependency Concerns
⛪
Skill preservation 🖋
Economic dependency 💸
Junior developer impact 🐣
I can’t believe you’re saying
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Survey Dependency Concerns
⛪
"Don't bring a forklift to the gym. Human skills are
'use it or lose it.'"
"Brain-task-based skills can be very 'use it or lose
it'. The difference between using basic
autocomplete and having an LLM generate entire
blocks or even files, is significant."
These things just can’t be true
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Survey Dependency Concerns
⛪
"I also have grave concerns about nascent and
novel devs, at the beginning of their journeys,
becoming overly reliant on LLMs and not learning
how to solve problems independently through
research and synthesis."
Our world could use this beauty
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Top concerns (by frequency)
⛪
AI hallucinations and incorrect code (60%+ of users)
Context window limitations (40%+ of users)
Data privacy/security concerns
Hard to measure actual impact (30%+ of users)
Poor handling of metaprogramming/DSLs (25%+ of
users)
Just think what we might do
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Automation Bias - Don't Lose Yourself
⛪
● Automation bias: Tendency to assume computers know more
than humans
● The Ruby perspective: AI doesn't understand Ruby's philosophy
or your codebase
● Healthy skepticism: Your instincts and knowledge matter more
than AI confidence
● Research backing: Professional experience and domain expertise
are most protective factors against automation bias
You're the Ruby expert, AI is just a tool
Don’t annoy us further
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Tools of the Trade
⛪
We have our work to do.
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DISCOVERY ✅ →
↓
🎸 Guitar
CONFLICT ✅
↓
⛪ Priests
→ RESOLUTION
↓
🔮 Oracle
The dream is still in my
head…
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Resolution
I wish that it might come to pass
Act 3
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From discovery to understanding
💎 We've seen what AI can do (and can't do)
💎 We've learned how to prompt thoughtfully
💎 We've explored the partnership model AI as tool, not replacement
Not fade like all my dreams
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"In a world of abundant cheap code, what
becomes scarce: Understanding. Judgment. The
wisdom to know what not to build"
- Kent Beck
"Any fool can write code that a computer can
understand. Good programmers write code that
humans can understand"
- Sandi Metz
"AI is going to be more valuable in helping
programmers understanding existing code rather
than generating new code"
- Martin Fowler
Just think of what my life might be
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Community-derived wisdom for AI usage
🗣 "Let it rough draft, and you refine. If it doesn't get it right on the first or
second try, don't get frustrated, just dip into the code and do it yourself."
🗣 "Never assume the LLM is right, challenge everything they tell you."
🗣 "Don't try to replace your brain with it, rather ask, how can I augment
my abilities with it."
🗣 "Narrow the scope of the task and be specific - give the AI tool
bite-sized, well-defined tasks with clear guardrails."
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When to Use AI 👍
✅ Rails generator-style boilerplate
✅ Basic CRUD operations and controllers
✅ RSpec test skeletons
✅ Migration file generation
✅ Simple refactoring (rename methods, extract variables)
✅ Debugging assistance
✅ Git commit messages: Transform "fix stuff" → "Fix user
authentication bug in SessionsController:42"
✅ Research tasks: Finding information about libraries and APIs
In a world like I have seen
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Beware the path you take 🚫 🤖
❌ Complex metaprogramming and method_missing
❌ Security-sensitive authentication logic
❌ Performance-critical optimizations
❌ Gem architecture decisions
❌ Advanced ActiveRecord relationships
❌ Custom DSL design (leave that to the humans!)
I don't think I can carry on
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How to use AI without losing Ruby's essence
Human-centered
design
Developer happiness
over efficiency
🥳
Readability over cleverness
📖
Keep learning
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
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We shape how AI develops
● Share your experiences (good and bad)
● Mentor thoughtful usage
● Contribute to Ruby-specific AI tools
● Seize this leadership moment
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
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— Rich Steinmetz
The whole midterm future of the 'AI coding
thing' is us collaborating with the IDE/editor
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
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Key Takeaways - The Resolution
Your expertise guides Trust your instincts
Share knowledge
freely
AI is a tool, not a
replacement
Does this feel
Ruby-like?
Community matters
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We have assumed
control...
DISCOVERY ✅ → CONFLICT ✅ →
RESOLUTION✅
↓ ↓ ↓
🎸 ⛪ 🔮
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Our Complete Journey
✅ Discovery: Found AI tools and faced our fears
✅ Conflict: Explored capabilities, limits, and learned
thoughtful use
✅ Resolution: Found wisdom in community and to help
choose our path
"We have assumed control..."
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References and Further Reading
Thank you Rush, rush.com/songs/2112/
RIP Neil Peart
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wnb-rb.dev
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CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, and
includes icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik
Thanks!
What questions can I answer?
@[email protected]
christine-seeman.com
github.com/cseeman/thoughtful-ai