Ben Sheldon

What does a "hard" software conference talk look like right now when in the context of AI? We still reading code? Prompts for agents? Sentence diagramming SKILL files? Doing cognitive auto-theory, but for agents?

@railsdesigner.com 👋

Walking the line in my auto factory and screaming at all the workers to make the cars stupider and more dangerous. They love this, it helps motivate them. "It's going to be able drive upside down," I yell through a megaphone. "It's going to be able to fart."

Currently reading "Midnight at Chernobyl". A major theme is respected sr leaders whose younger genius laid the foundations of their practice, but now are responsibility-shirking social climbers who are bullying and disdainful of the technical practitioners they oversee. Yup, that's the stuff.

I finally cracked on GoodJob and implemented something I've been avoiding: patching Active Job to make *my* callback always run last. (this became necessary to make Concurrency rules be checked last last last after anything else that might modify the rules/conditions has run)

Conference talks in the age of AI: Here's a list of 30 things on a topic to tell your agent to do. No details. And still it will run long. I don't hate it tbh. I like a good survey study, so long as it's good. SO LONG AS IT'S GOOD.

@rubycademy.bsky.social your emails seem broken. Also commenter email confirmation on the launchkit blog is broken. (assuming this is you; I see no ref who is behind the project ❤️)

Alcatraz Open ✅ Every year my swim club hosts an open-to-the-public swim from Alcatraz. This morning: 550 swimmers, 300 volunteers. I helped launch boats and then kept the kitchen-chowder-coffee pipeline flowing.

@byroot.bsky.social congrats and thank you for JSON 3.0 🙇

Less than 30 days left to get your SF Ruby conference ticket. If you're local to the Bay, definitely please come! In addition to me being a speaker (💅), it should be a really nice experience at the SFJAZZ Center 📍 https://sfruby.com/

This was a new pattern for me using Ruby Fiber: https://island94.org/2026/09/converting-a-ruby-block-interface-to-start-stop-methods-with-a-fiber

It’s week two of our sponsorship drive! Thank you so much to the ten Rubyists who became Hanakai sponsors in the last week! You’re standing up and showing us there's power in numbers. Read more about it here, including a special Q&A with Pat Allan! hanakai.org/blog/2026/08...

I wrote some thoughts about Information Technology. And also about two technical interview designs. Something for everyone! 😆 I would love to chat if you have thoughts/experiences about building/designing case management or customer support software. island94.org/2026/08/two-...

This is an exciting (new?) thing I learned that allows a lot of workflows I want on GitHub Actions: island94.org/2026/08/prog...

my brother & his partner are telling me an insane story about this local deity called "st. rat" which is apparently a mosaic relief put up by some queers in seattle. the city kept trying to paint over it, but people would repeatedly just use acetone and remove the paint until the city gave up

If you're not outraged, you should be

Odysseus: Do I need to give sacrifice to Poseidon before we set sail? Alex: All the information is in the task.

If you know of any open-source program using Ractors, let me know, I'd be interested to try it with ractor-shim.

Hello, Ruby World! sfruby.com

#civictech is about benefiting the public good - not government efficiency www.civictechnologists.org/2025/02/civi... @derekeder.com and I write for @civictechallies.bsky.social on what civic tech volunteer groups can do to reduce harm brought on by the new administrations policies (thread!)

ACT unequivocally supports all diverse individuals. We stand for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility to build stronger, more innovative #civictech and public service. Read our full joint statement with #TechnologistsForThePublicGood (#TPG) 👇 🔗https://www.civictechnologists.org/2025/01/…

If people leaving USDS are looking to stay in #civictech, the Alliance of Civic Technologisits (@civictechallies.bsky.social) is recruiting for both our current member organizations and for starting NEW civic technology volunteer organizations. Get in touch -> hello(at)civictechnologists.org

I'm rereading "Radical Focus" to sharpen up my dislike of how OKRs are practiced.

I guess this is how we code now 🫠 tbh I'm not unhappy with the result, just disappointed in myself.

GitHub is now running Ruby 3.4.1

I wrote some high level thoughts to help make sense of the current reality of AI: https://island94.org/2025/1/how-im-thinking-about-ai-llms

I wrote about moving my static site blog from Jekyll to Parklife+Rails: https://island94.org/2025/1/living-parklife-with-rails-coming-from-jekyll

RubyConf 2024 talks are live on @rubyvideo.dev! 🥳

shouldve titled the piece "zones of ethical interest"

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