What I've learned at RailsConf '08
June 07, 2008
1) The value of open source.
Open source is really amazing. I’m looking forward to contribute to rails, and to write more plugins/gems. Why? It’s very probable that “your plugin (or whatever OSS)” it is going get better as more people use it or contribute to it. You will meet people, you’ll get your name out there, and a job opportunity may arise because of your results.
2) The value of hooking up with other programmers.
First it is fun to have friends like you. It’s also great to have close people to share knowledge, problems, etc. And again you might have job opportunities thanks to these relations.
3) How we (programmers) should work with designers.
There were great talks at RailsConf, but I think this is the only session that taught me something. It was great talk given by Ryan Singer of 37Signals, he is a designer, not a programmer. A lot of people misunderstood his talk, and the purpose of it, eventhough Ryan made it pretty clear. In a nutshell:
(DESIGNER - PHOTOSHOP + HTML/CSS + RAILS_SOURCE) + PROGRAMMER = SUCCESS
4) I’m not alone.
The rails community is getting bigger and bigger, it was incredible to see so many people at a conference.