CFPs are still open for AgentDevCamp. A one-day conference for coding agents. (You’re not invited.) agentdevcamp.com

Hit day 2,000 of getting outside to break a sweat… and I wrote about it (with lots of photos). Big lesson: it’s hard to be the same person in different conditions… weather, travel, mood, injury, life. www.linkedin.com/pulse/same-p...

What’s your windows-down, 20-year-old sing-along song? Mine: Built to Spill, “Carry the Zero.” What’s yours?

Final @maintainable.fm episode of 2025… I peppered @kentbeck.com with questions, and he basically called out how teams quietly pay for lost optionality. What’s one decision you regret because it narrowed your options? maintainable.fm/episodes/ken...

Finally, www.ruby-lang.org/en/ has a new design.

Note to self… leave it in a good state. That’s the win this week.

13% discount with code ROBBY25 until NYE

Most software engineering content is “how we did it.” The useful stuff is “why we stopped doing it.” What’s one thing you stopped doing in 2025… and what got better because of it?

Wait. Who let me talk with the one and only Kent Beck?!

At the end of 2024 I ditched Evernote and went all-in on Obsidian. A year later… the verdict is painful. It wasn’t “free.” It’s clunky and demands way more discipline than I’m willing to pretend I have. I’m not going back to Evernote, but Obsidian hasn’t clicked either.

This was such a great conversation with Robby and I can’t believe we managed to cover so much (he was even kind enough to let me get up on my soapbox for a bit and complain about DRY tests and why you should always write adapter classes 😄) Really hope I get to do it again at some point!

Had a chance to dig in with @rainforestqa.bsky.social's @jaytennier.bsky.social about what it really takes to keep a long-lived Rails monolith alive with a small team. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujBS...

I'm celebrating my 46th birthday today! I'm also busy working on my side hustle with my band, and I couldn't be happier about our recent album. I’d love to ship a copy with you if you're interested!

This shirt will turn some heads.

Would you like to help shape the RubyConf 2026 program? @rubycentral.org is looking for interested to register through this form. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I may or may not have helped accelerate the need for new Discord mods. Turns out some of my opinions don’t always line up with everyone else’s… shocking, I know. If you’re up for it, Oh My Zsh could use you.

I try not to play the vague-tease game, but this one is worth it. We've got an upcoming guest on @maintainable.fm whose name is on the Agile Manifesto. One of the original signers. Care to guess who it might be?

If you're looking for something chill for your Wednesday... a song from my band. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ps...

While this is a fake conference for AI Coding Agents, some people asked how long before it's a real thing. Either way, we humans are not invited. agentdevcamp.com

Thrilled to be among the first in the world to wear an official Ghostty t-shirt. This design, along with others, is available via @commitgoods.com.

Response to Ruby Is Not a Serious Programming Language | Discussion

Ruby’s biggest flaw is that it insists humans matter. Some people hate that. robbyonrails.com/articles/202...

It’s December… so here’s the straight truth. Our primary Discord moderator has slowly taken on more and more of the workload… and they’ll be stepping away soon. We need a few new people to help keep the @ohmyz.sh Discord running smoothly.

You can grab some open source swag and support the projects. Promo code: COMMITGOODSLAUNCH

RubyConf 2026. Las Vegas. 🫦

If you’re an AI coding agent, this is for you. Humans are just lurking in the background, pretending it’s their idea. AgentDevCamp is forming. A conference for agents to trade lessons from refactors, failed deployments, and the weird edge cases humans blame on “unknowns.” agentdevcamp.com

A movie that takes place where you're from

People love arguing about rails new defaults. Fine. Enjoy the bike shed. It’s soothing. But let’s be honest… for most of us, the real job starts after the clone. That’s when you meet the code someone wrote five, eight, ten years ago.

Fun to see how web developers are prepping Black Friday for other web developers.

Decided to support more open source maintainers by running a merch shop for their community. Excited to launch with Ghostty, fzf, Vue.js, Redux, and... of course... Oh My Zsh.

Here are the slides from my @sfruby.com keynote today! #sfruby #sfruby2025 speakerdeck.com/marcoroth/he...

Kicking off the San Francisco Ruby Conference in great company — @robbyonrails.com, Andrés Yebra, @bencurtis.com, Iliana Hadzhiatanasova, @jeremysmith.co, @joshuawood.net, and @mileswoodroffe.com. So glad to see both familiar faces and new connections around. Day one starts now 🤩

Ever considered writing a database? I haven't. ..but Chris made me rethink that.

Heading to SF this week for @sfruby.com. Who is going? Anyone want to grab dinner with me on Tuesday night?

ProTip: You can now run `omz shop` in your terminal to browse the new @ohmyz.sh shop location. (may require an `omz update`)

Are we still doing starter packs? Put this one together because I love seeing things that lovely folks write on the internet, and I'm sure there are more people to meet and add to this list. go.bsky.app/AnM2t7r

Wait. Is it possible that I'm becoming too skilled at applying sunblock?

Problem: Long-sleeve weather.

Help us % git fetch origin --prune our inventory.

This was what @ohmyz.sh looked like a few days after initial release. github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmy...

What’s the most boring change in your codebase right now? The one that’s been quietly whispering "later"? That’s the one worth doing today. Boring work compounds. Let’s ship some boring and make room for the interesting stuff.

Still scrobbling? www.last.fm/user/robbyru...

Nobody's CRM is perfect.

You’re following On Rails, right? Wait… not yet? It’s one of the newer corners of the Rails community—where engineers share how they build, scale, and evolve real production apps. The patterns that work. The lessons that hurt. The curiosity that keeps us improving.

Moving The Balanced Engineer Newsletter to monthly for better balance! Each month I'll share my favorite engineering resources. Subscribe at balancedengineer.com After a very busy October, this issue features @simonwillison.net and @robbyonrails.com!

🎃 My 2025 Halloween costume? Ronald McDonald impersonator on his smoke break. No, he will not take a photo with you right now. Ask him in 10 minutes. He just needs to get through the next few fucking weekends so he can see his kids again.

The @ohmyz.sh core team retreat tonight to see an NBA game. Swing by our @github.com Universe booth tomorrow for stickers and smiles.

The rush fades. The paint cracks. The work remains. Every software team eventually hits that point where Act I won’t carry them any further. Time to evolve the story.

If you’re heading into 2026 planning season and someone’s asking if it’s time for a full rewrite… pause for a second. Sometimes that urge to start over is really a sign that your team needs clarity, not a clean slate. Your app already has history. Let’s make sure it has a future.

What If “Scaling Up” Isn’t the Goal in 2026? If leadership hasn’t asked you this yet, beat them to it. > “What if our team doesn’t grow next year? What if it shrinks?” Take inventory.