Flagrant in the Motor City

Hello RailsConf!

On Monday, May 6th, four members of the Flagrant team climbed in cars and hopped on planes to make their way to RailsConf in Detroit. From Madison, where SaVance, Valenzia, and Jim began their trip, Detroit is around a 7-hour drive including stops for food and bio breaks.

During the drive we talked and listened to music, (lots of Motown), and a couple of podcasts to fill the time. The podcasts we listened to were “Smartless”, an episode featuring Martin Short and Steve Martin, and a Dateline case which we successfully guessed the ending to. Around 12 pm we stopped at a Culvers somewhere in Indiana and ate outside, enjoying the beautiful weather.

After our lunch, we drove through to Detroit, arriving around 4 o’clock at the Marriot Renaissance Center to check-in. At the hotel we met up with Cody, the fourth member of the team that would be attending the conference. As we were checking in to the hotel, we started to see many people checking in with the Ruby Central staff for the conference.

We decided to drop off our bags in our rooms and take a tour of the hotel. Cody led the way as he arrived first and had made his way around the building. Some notable spots were the cafeteria and the ground level. On the ground level of the hotel, there was an area filled with unique cars and information about the history of Detroit as a hub for the automotive industry. As for the cafeteria, there was a huge glass ceiling and tall palm trees, a super beautiful space. (Unfortunately we found out that the palm trees were fake😢, but hey, can’t win them all.)

Wrapping up the tour, we decided to split up to go gather supplies for the next day and then get settled in our rooms to rest for the conference.

Our Reflections and Takeaways

Y’all remember people? They are still out there! And a lot of them are really cool. They have unique perspectives, heroic accomplishments, signature styles, and infectious smiles.

The Ruby / Rails community is chock full of these folks. They love what they do, and they genuinely want to share it with the world. When you go to a Ruby / Rails conferences those are the people you get to meet. That person nobly maintaining the gem your company relies on. The person from the podcast you listen to every week. @Tenderlove. It truly is hard to find better company.

And what better way to find tangible evidence that ‘You Don’t Suck’. At Rails conf you meet Real People™ that have wrestled (are wrestling) their way through duplicated application logic, flakey test suites, a shame worthy lack of accessibility, memory leaks, inefficient background jobs, bloated models/controllers/apis, etc etc.

The next time you find yourself coming down with a case of “I’m so dumb because I struggled with X”, you get to remember that REALLY smart people dedicate entire conference talks to X.

Rails gets a lot of hate these days. We have all read “Is Rails Dead 💀???” more than a couple times. I skim that blog, see the same arguments again, roll my eyes, and continue to use Rails.

Attending a Ruby / Rails conf is taking that love of Rails one step further. It’s telling your personal and professional network

• I’m still building with Rails
• I want to see / meet / learn more about other people building with Rails
• I’m investing in Rails. Heck i’m betting on it.

SO do it. Take part in the Ruby and Rails communities. You won’t regret it.

If you’re looking for a team to help you discover the right thing to build and help you build it, get in touch.