[omgdlight]

ruby is really good for solving small problems quickly. Don't get me wrong, proficiency in your shell will go a long way. But when something starts to get complicated I can bang it out in ruby and it's just done.

Web apps do drive ruby's adoption, though. Now that I know ruby I use it for many things, but I learned it initially for rails. Many other languages (like python) can fulfill ruby's scripting usages (I would argue javascript can't - despite its many strengths it's just a little too awkward)

[jwdunne]

Matches my use case completely. I haven't built a rails app but learned ruby with a view of doing that but never did (I believe it's important to know the language before the framework - in hindsight, a good decision with Rails specifically).

I like the standard library and I love the gems that fill the gaps the stdlib shouldn't really fill.

Many devs I know reach for the language they use day to day and their scripts and productivity suffer. Ruby is almost like an openly secret weapon in that sense.