[bigwheeler]

After getting hooked by DHH’s “Blog in 10 minutes” (or whatever it was at the time, 2008 or so), I spent a few days in Denver with Mike and Dave (and Nicole!) for Pragmatic Studio’s Rails crash course, and that really opened my eyes to how powerful the framework could make me. But when I was done with those few days, I spent so much time feeling like I couldn’t figure things out, or like I wasn’t productive enough as a programmer. I think RailsCasts was mostly responsible for getting me past that.

It was so helpful to follow along with Ryan as he explained his decision making processes, and how he would solve specific problems. Prior to then, all I really had was self-experimentation, and a lot of great books that seemed to get out of date faster than they could be printed. Even today it’s still a huge help to have Chris Oliver and Dave Kimura sharing their expertise, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in 15 years of web development, it’s that I need whatever help I can get to stay on top of what is currently going on.

So thank you Ryan, I am looking forward to Part 2 of the series.