The Ruby on Rails Podcast

Andy Kroll joins the podcast to talk about Brighton Ruby, the impact AI is having on software development, and how the changing technology landscape is affecting everything from conference budgets to engineering teams.

Andy shares how tools like Claude Code have changed his day-to-day work, making previously neglected projects more achievable while putting even more emphasis on code review, judgment, and maintaining a sustainable Rails application. They also dig into one of the harder questions created by AI: how do you interview software engineers when take-home coding exercises and traditional technical tests are increasingly easy to hand off to a model?

Andy explains how CoverageBook is approaching hiring by focusing on product thinking, decision-making, real-world code review, and conversations that more closely resemble actually working together.

The conversation also turns to the challenges of organizing Brighton Ruby, why Andy is taking a year off from the conference, David’s interest in someday organizing a Ruby conference of his own, and why keeping financial risk under control may be the most important lesson for a first-time conference organizer.

Finally, they look ahead to Rails World and reflect on one of the biggest reasons conferences still matter: getting Ruby developers out from behind their screens and into a room with people who understand what they do.

Sponsor

Judoscale: https://judoscale.com/

Rails Foundation Executive Director Amanda Perino joins David to preview Rails World 2026, the conference’s first year in the United States.

Amanda shares how the team is bringing Austin’s personality into the event through live music, barbecue, sponsor experiences, a mechanical bull, the returning Buzzsprout podcast booth, and Rails World’s biggest lightning-talk stage yet. She also discusses the opening keynote livestream, the lightning-talk CFP, ticket availability, and what attendees should expect as the conference approaches.

The conversation then turns to the Rails Foundation itself. Amanda explains how the rapid growth of AI has forced the organization to reconsider how it executes its mission across events, marketing, documentation, and education. They also discuss the challenge of building a conference program that serves developers interested in AI without neglecting everything else happening in Ruby and Rails.

Finally, Amanda surprises David with an extra ticket to Rails World—and they decide to give it away to a podcast listener.

Enter the Rails World ticket giveaway:

https://forms.gle/LoLvTfJ2BFavpox69

Sponsor

Judoscale: https://judoscale.com/

Making new Ruby Friends is one of my favorite parts of attending conferences. Neha Abraham joins me to chat about RubyConf, Mental Health, Data Aggregation, and being my Nemesis

While at RubyConf, I caught up with several attendees and volunteers to discuss their experiences. These quick interviews have been collected for this episode.

Our Guests

Charles Nutter

Miguel Filho

Cameron Dutro

Nico Roulston