A couple of new blog shaped things: I've decided to start doing the book posts monthly (so shorter but more frequent), here's January: noelrappin.com/2026/05/janu... February: noelrappin.com/2026/06/febr...

Hello, Ruby Friends! New episodes of The Ruby on Rails Podcast are going to start rolling out soon! If all goes well, the first new episode should go up next week. The podcast has a brand new host who is very excited to hit the ground running.

Chicago Ruby tonight (June 3). Hosted at Chime 6-9 PM 333 North Green Street Ifat Ribon: Fewer Tests, More Confidence Fito von Zastrow - Defying Gravity: Teaching AI to Write Better Ruby Noel Rappin: Inspector Gadget: Adventures in Agent code review Sign up: www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...

A beautiful post about a perfect book.

Wednesday, Jun 3 · 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM CDT 333 North Green Street · Chicago, IL Sign up here: www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...

Wednesday, Jun 3 · 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM CDT 333 North Green Street · Chicago, IL Sign up here: www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...

Come join the Ruby community in Chicago with us Wednesday, we're going to have a lot of pizza if you don't...

My talk is tentatively titled "Inspector Gadget: Adventures in Agent Code Review", and it launches from the weirdness of asking an LLM "what would <a Ruby Luminary> do?"

OK, so the paper version of Eloquent Ruby is off to production. That means it's a couple of months away from making an appearance. It also means I'm done, with a capital "Ahhh." pragprog.com/titles/eruby...

My talk is tentatively titled "Inspector Gadget: Adventures in Agent Code Review", and it launches from the weirdness of asking an LLM "what would <a Ruby Luminary> do?"

ChicagoRuby @ Chime — June 3 Register: lnkd.in/gfJ_n9AA 🎤 Ifat Ribon — AI-generated tests & confidence 🎤 @fito.codegardener.com — Defying Gravity: Teaching AI to Write Better Ruby 🎤 @noelrappin.com — joined us as our third speaker Big thanks to Chime for hosting us again 👏 See you!

You should all absolutely read my post on the Gang of Four _Design Patterns_ book and it's impact: noelrappin.com/2026/04/when... And... entry two in this series is going to be XP Explained, a book that legitimately changed my life.. I have opinions, this one is going long

Hear me out, the team is Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, J’Onn, and Beast Boy. Yes, Supes and Salad…

Hey -- there's a Chime listing on my exact team. This is a remote job for US/Canada applicants. careers.chime.com/en/jobs/8414... It's doing a lot of the work I do on our Ruby code, but focused on our Python teams. Happy to answer questions about this here or via DM.

New Blog Post! New series about the extremely timely topic of old programming books! "When Books Could Code: Design Patterns" noelrappin.com/2026/04/when... We start with one of the most influential from my early career... Does its advice hold up?

New Blog Post! New series about the extremely timely topic of old programming books! "When Books Could Code: Design Patterns" noelrappin.com/2026/04/when... We start with one of the most influential from my early career... Does its advice hold up?

Hey -- there's a Chime listing on my exact team. This is a remote job for US/Canada applicants. careers.chime.com/en/jobs/8414... It's doing a lot of the work I do on our Ruby code, but focused on our Python teams. Happy to answer questions about this here or via DM.

Noel's book lists are *outstanding*. I look forward to them each year and put three holds on books at the library just after skimming this

It's time for the somewhat-awaited annual book post, a tradition unlike any other... noelrappin.com/blog/2026/03... It's kinda long this year, but I really did extra-love my top two books of the year, so maybe at least scroll to the end?

It's time for the somewhat-awaited annual book post, a tradition unlike any other... noelrappin.com/blog/2026/03... It's kinda long this year, but I really did extra-love my top two books of the year, so maybe at least scroll to the end?

You can see from the cover that we have a new forward form @matz.bsky.social

The Pickaxe. One of this week's Pragprog Top 5. Learn Ruby from the 6th edition of the book that first introduced Matz’s amazing language to the world. (And this weekend, 40% off with code KNITTING) @noelrappin.com with Dave Thomas pragprog.com/titles/ruby6

I've been saying forever that Concrete would make an amazing TV series. While we wait for that, you should check out the original stories.

When I first saw the title One Battle After Another, it played in my head to this tune. That hasn’t stopped. (I’m not well.) youtu.be/PKUGIq71l7Y

@pragprog.com says 43% Off everything with coupon code "Brrr". Including Programming Ruby 4 (pragprog.com/titles/ruby6...)

Workshops from 2025 SF Ruby Conference are now live. These include: - @tonsoffun.bsky.social on building AI agents with Rails - Brandon Shar, @skryukov.dev, and Brian Knoles on Inertia Rails - @kaspth.com on upskilling your team - @noelrappin.com on Ruby’s dynamism to your advantage

I haven't mentioned it yet here, but Programming Ruby 4.0 does have a new beta out that runs all code against Ruby 4.0.0 final, and also covers Minitest 6.0 and a couple of other late breaking changes: pragprog.com/titles/ruby6...

Happy to announce that I'm joining as a member of the Board of Directors for @rubycentral.org! www.linkedin.com/posts/keysto...

My new profile pic is from an old issue of MAD Magazine where I popped up in Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side Of..."

Also, in news that will intrigue at least one or two of you, I actually managed to do mini book reviews as I read books in 2025, meaning my 2025 "Books I Liked" post, which traditionally comes out in, like, April, may actually come out in January.

I think this is still going on for another day or two, and yes, Programming Ruby 4.0 qualifies: pragprog.com/titles/ruby6...

We just had our biggest day in StoryGraph history! Thanks for joining, we have big plans for 2026!

Pause. Reflect. Imagine what’s next. Use New Year's code INSIGHT to save 40% pragprog.com

Just published this year's version of my "Ruby Changes" project: a full annotated changelog for Ruby 4.0: rubyreferences.github.io/rubychanges/... Goals: Full, comprehensive, concise, well-structured. Examples, explanations of reasons, links to docs, all of it.

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Hey! I'm very excited to announce! We've got a brand new Programming Ruby 4.0 out just in time for the upcoming release: pragprog.com/titles/ruby6... Obviously this is a beta release (written off of RC2), but there will be a second beta right on the heels of the release next week.

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I wanted to acknowledge that @davetron5000.com says that the new version of Sustainable Web Development with Ruby on Rails covering 8.1 (sustainable-rails.com) will be the last. This is a great book, I've recommended it often, and I'm sad to see it end. (Though I understand why). Thanks, Dave!

_The Raven Scholar_, a book that is going to be very, very prominently featured in my year-end book post is $2.99 today amzn.to/4rLvY4i Really, if you like fantasy at all and aren't deterred by 600 pages of book one of a trilogy, this one is very good.

I had an incredible time at SF Ruby Conference! The venue, talks, and conversations were all top tier. See why in this blog! ✨ www.chael.codes/blog/2025/11... #sfruby #sfruby2025

The sale is still ongoing!

It's time for the big @pragprog.com Black Friday sale! This year, 50% off with code "save50" -- I think this is the biggest sale in Prag Bookshelf history! Ends December 1st. Go to media.pragprog.com/newsletters/... for more info.

I note as I edit the Ruby/Lisp post that _Gödel, Escher, Bach_, published in 1979, has, as I type this, an Amazon rank under 5,000. It's been decades since I read it, I wonder if the AI parts hold up.