Rediscovering Ruby in Scotland

Our CTO Justyn Clark joined Ruby on Rails Engineers Ste Harrison and Daz Jones for the long trip up to Edinburgh, where they enjoyed a myriad of insightful content – and they were kind enough to highlight some of the best bits from their point of view.

One of the most anticipated talks came from Olly Heady, the creator of accounting software FreeAgent and a known figure in the industry. He spoke on the importance of keeping creativity at the forefront and avoiding the trap of overthinking. For developers who tend to spend hours wrestling with code perfection, his perspective was refreshing. Sometimes, as Olly reminded us, it’s all about trusting your instincts and taking a leap rather than trying to plan for every possible scenario.

The team also caught up with Rosa Guttierez from 37Signals (developers of BaseCamp and Hey) and zeroed in on the critical importance of encoding characters properly—a detail that can often be overlooked but can cause major issues if mishandled. Rosa walked through some essential Ruby methods that can streamline encoding, recommending new tools to avoid common pitfalls in our own projects.

She even shared her insights about Solid Queue, a new job processing library she’s been working on and the team jumped at the chance to pick her brain about self-queuing jobs and concurrency controls, which could be a huge benefit in a project we have underway at Yozu.

Open Source and Fractional CTO-ing

Ayush Newatia captivated the audience with a deep dive into Bridgetown, a next-generation static site generator, and spoke on the significance of contributing to open-source projects. It was inspiring to see his enthusiasm and reminded us of how meaningful open-source work can be, not just for the developer community but for our personal growth as well. Maybe we’ll even carve out some time to make our own contributions!

One of the more unique talks came from Ceri Shaw, who discussed the life of a fractional CTO and the variety of responsibilities that come with the role. As someone who balances technical leadership with strategic guidance for multiple companies, Ceri shed light on the growing trend of “fractional” roles in tech and how they can offer flexibility and fresh perspectives to startups and smaller businesses.

But Haggis Ruby wasn’t all Rails and production code—Max Hatful brought something different by showing off his game development library, RubyRPG. It was a great reminder that Ruby is more than just Rails. RubyRPG opens the door for anyone who wants to dip their toes into game development, showing the versatility and creative potential of Ruby.

After lunch, Sergy Sergyenko from CyberGizer took things further into the future by showcasing how AI can be integrated with Ruby apps. His presentation sparked plenty of ideas, and we left thinking about ways we might incorporate some of these concepts.

Melinda Seckington tackled the essential topic of resilience. Her strategies for managing stress and staying resilient were a huge hit with the audience. In the world of software development, resilience isn’t just a bonus—it’s a must. Her advice was relatable and actionable, and we’re looking forward to sharing some of her tips with the rest of our team.

Mike McQuaid gave an in-depth talk on Ruby on Guard Rails, showing us some great tools to help keep our code stay on track (sorry!). With so much focus on maintaining stability, Mike’s session gave us practical tools for making sure our code remains solid and reliable, a lesson every developer can benefit from.

The event wrapped up with Emma Barnes, who had us all laughing and nodding along as she shared the story of her app’s development journey. She reminded us that not every line of code needs to be perfect and that context is key. Her mantra, “Your code should tell a story for the people who see it after you,” really resonated. It’s a reminder that code is as much about communication as it is about function.

The Best of Scottish Culture

Of course, a trip to Scotland wouldn’t be complete without a taste of the local cuisine and some fun and games. We got to try haggis butties (vegan option included!), the team enjoyed their first experience of curling – and Justyn even made it to the final round of the Rock Paper Scissors competition on stage at the conference!

We also caught up with some familiar faces from the NWRUG (North West Ruby Users Group) community, making the experience even more memorable.

Scotland Ruby Back with a Blast

All in all, Haggis Ruby ’24 was a fantastic experience for our team, who left inspired with new ideas, connections, and perspectives to bring back to our projects at Yozu. If this year was any indication, Scotland’s Ruby community is back and stronger than ever—we’re already looking forward to the next event!