Alan Ridlehoover

Compliments are a reflection of the light you are putting out into the world.

Accept them graciously by recognizing that other people have a better view of your aura than your inner critic does.

I end up using the right half of my left monitor and the left half of my right monitor.

You’ll need a good window manager. I use magnet on MacOS.

Hi all! 👋 I was laid off and am looking for my next senior front end developer role.

I have 19+ years of experience working with small agencies and Fortune 500 companies and focus on writing clean, accessible HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Resume: aubreysambor.com/resume/

Leads/reposts appreciated!

Congratulations!

And, oof! I always speed up in front of a conference audience. Maybe put some reminders in your speakers notes to pause and take a sip of water. Or, ad lib more. Ad libbing always slows me down. YMMV.

Atlanta Welcome to the ATL, Y'all

Speakers are slowly being announced, but registration is open now! www.xoruby.com/event/atlanta/

I'm going to be speaking at @xoruby.com Atlanta on September 13th. XO Ruby is a brand-new (traveling) single-day Ruby conference. If you're a Rubyist in the southeastern US, you should check it out! (And if not, take a look at other 5 stops this fall.)

Atlanta Welcome to the ATL, Y'all

I'm speaking at @xoruby.com in Atlanta, you should come if you care about your team's survivability & the future of our language. 😉

www.xoruby.com/event/atlanta/

Also: first rehearsal of this talk came in at 19m, so I need to sloooooowwwww doooowwwwnnnnnnn

RailsConf Reminiscing - The Code Gardener In this episode, we take a nostalgic look back at what RailsConf has meant to us over the years.

@fito.codegardener.com and I picked up our microphones again a couple of weeks ago! Here's a link in case it flew by in your feed before you could click on it...

@fito.codegardener.com and I are thrilled to be speaking at SF RubyConf this November! So many amazing speakers! Hope to see you there!

YouTube video by Ruby Central RailsConf 2025 Derailing Our Application: How and Why We... by Fito von Zastrow, Alan Ridlehoover

The RailsConf 2025 talks are up on the Ruby Central channel on YouTube!

Here's @fito.codegardener.com and I giving our talk called "Derailing Our Application: How and Why We're Decoupling Our Code from Rails."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFG...

YouTube video by Ruby Central RailsConf 2025 Lightning Talks

The #RailsConf 2025 talks are up on the Ruby Central channel on YouTube, including the lightning talks.

Here's my lightning talk, entitled "The Other Side of Fear." (You should really watch them all, but this link is teed up to my talk at 57:55.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XucQ...

Hi Scott! I really enjoyed your talk. I felt seen. I felt heard. I felt. Thanks for that.

RailsConf Reminiscing Podcast Episode · The Code Gardener · 07/17/2025 · 1h 11m

It’s been a minute, but attending the last RailsConf last week had @fito.codegardener.com and I feeling nostalgic and wanting to share…

Won’t you be my Ruby Friend?

rubyfriends.app/profiles/KVVY

When Focusing on Your Weaknesses is Helpful Weaknesses deserve our focus when they cannot be delegated, outsourced or ignored. There are plenty of situations when a skill cannot be delegated to someone else: When one component of a skill is necessary for another. A lawyer who isn’t a good reader can’t be a good lawyer—there’s too much reading in the job to avoid it. Similarly, a programmer can’t easily avoid knowing about systems that interact with her work. When there are rules forbidding it. A golfer can’t hire a replacement to putt for him, even if he’s lousy on the green. When transaction costs make outsourcing prohibitive. I’m not a great handyman. I wouldn’t attempt a bathroom or kitchen renovation by myself. But fixing a squeaky hinge or hanging a picture frame isn’t going to be worth the cost of hiring someone, so it helps to learn to do it yourself.

Pretty good rubric. 👍

www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2025/07...

I told the family you invited us to dinner if we’re ever in London. I also mentioned a few other Rubyists I might want to see.

My youngest said, “I don’t want to be dragged all over Europe going to your work things, Dad. I have things I want to do!” 😳

So you may or may not meet the teenagers. 😢

Thanks to every #RubyFriend that made #RailsConf2025 special. Whether you were there or not. <3

kevinjmurphy.com/posts/railsc...

Dang! Our flight was over sold. We chose to take the flight vouchers and leave on a later flight. New flight leaves 6ish. We could have joined you. 😔

#RubyFriends

@fito.codegardener.com and I with @nodunayo.bsky.social (AKA The Talent) just after RailsConf 2025.

"Smaller things are less complex and easier to test." @alan.codegardener.com at #RailsConf2025

Fito Von Zastrow and Alan Ridlehoover on stage at RailsConf

Now @fito.codegardener.com‬ and @alan.codegardener.com‬ are going off the Rails, decoupling Cisco Meraki's code to scale their team and application. #RailsConf2025

Cisco Meraki is such an organization. We're old (2006). We're a large team (1000+ engineers). And, our codebase is huge (4.25+ million lined of Ruby).

You may not be that big yet. But, you may be one day!

Come listen to @fito.codegardener.com and I as we discuss how we manage all of that.

Also, @fito.codegardener.com and I will be speaking at SF Ruby Conf! We'll be talking about our approach to managing the scale of our codebase and our team at Cisco Meraki.

We're one of the oldest (2006) and largest (1000+ engineers) Rails shops on the planet. And, we have a unique approach...

This is going to be an amazing event!

@inazarova.bsky.social has done amazing things with the SF Ruby Meetup. I cannot wait to see what she does with more time, more speakers, and more attendees! Not to mention that Fort Mason is a great space!

I cannot wait!

Aye, that won't do me any good. I banished Meta from my life in 2016.

I feel like I might need video evidence of that!

Also, I should probably watch Rocky this weekend.

I heard a rumor that accessing the Liberty Bell involves some seriously onerous security. How long should one allocate to these kinds of tourist attractions?

And, how many stairs did Rocky climb? Asking for a friend who might want to run up them...

The weather this time of year in Philly generally changes a lot day to day so take the forecast for #RailsConf with a grain of salt. Here's my suggestions for anyone traveling from outside the east coast:

Alan Ridlehoover - Ode to RailsConf Alan Ridlehoover shares his perspective as both a longtime Ruby developer and conference sponsor, reflecting on the evolving Ruby conference landscape and strategies for maintaining legacy Rails appli...

There's a new episode of the Ode to RailsConf podcast up this morning, with Alan Ridlehoover ( @alan.codegardener.com ) as my latest guest. It's probably one of my most personal episodes given the impact that Alan had on me at RubyConf back in November.

www.odetorailsconf.com/2363110/epis...

My next guest on the podcast is Alan Ridlehoover ( @alan.codegardener.com ). I met Alan at RubyConf this past November, and it was because of him that I had a truly amazing final night at that Conference. I hope you'll listen and hear all about it, Monday morning!