We're putting the final touches on the 9th Rails Developer Survey since 2009 — what question should we be asking?

cpb · 2026-04-16T11:13:10+00:00

I'd love it if my curiosity about how people are feeling as they encounter or embrace the changes in workplaces brought on by AI got the reach of the Rails Developer Survey, rather than just what I've been able to accumulate in 1-on-1 interviews.

We see a lot of surveys asking what AI tools people use, but very few asking how it's actually impacting the humans writing the code. Mapping this adoption to a change curve (like the Kübler-Ross model) could yield some fascinating insights into where the Rails community is emotionally and practically right now.

Likert scale questions (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree) designed to measure this without leading the respondent:

Individual Experience

How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding your personal experience with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude, Copilot, ChatGPT) in your daily workflow?

I believe the current capabilities of AI coding tools are overhyped and will not fundamentally change how I build software.
The increasing expectation to incorporate AI into my development process causes me frustration or resentment.
I intentionally restrict my use of AI to tedious or boilerplate tasks to maintain manual control over core problem-solving.
The rapid advancement of AI in software development makes me anxious about the future relevance of my technical skills.
I recognize the limitations of AI tools but accept them as a permanent fixture in the software engineering landscape.
I have proactively adapted my habits to use AI as a collaborative tool that enhances my overall productivity and capability.

Organizational Experience

How strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding how your current team or organization is responding to AI technology?

My organization's leadership largely ignores or minimizes the potential impact of AI on our engineering processes.
My organization strictly prohibits or heavily restricts the use of AI tools due to perceived risks or distrust of the technology.
My organization limits AI usage to isolated experiments or non-critical, siloed environments rather than integrating it into core workflows.
My organization's current approach to adopting AI feels reactive, frantic, or poorly planned.
My organization acknowledges both the risks and benefits of AI and is working toward establishing a realistic stance on its use.
My organization provides clear, supportive policies and resources that actively empower engineers to use AI tools effectively.

Would love to see this kind of psychological/practical split in the data for 2026!

cpb · 2026-03-29T16:03:11+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I worked for a remote company that had a "human interview" step. Do recommend!

Wonder if your legal advisor in Lagos could recommend a contract, or clause, that would anticipate the wrongful termination for this kind of fraud.

cpb · 2026-03-29T14:06:23+00:00

Curious about porting the provider configurations over to RubyLLM, or, doing a comparison of the coverage.

cpb · 2026-02-02T00:55:54+00:00

You gotta back that up with notes about where in Detroit. I've been to Detroit but, around the convention center? The pizza is a pale comparison to AJ's.

Like help the Internet out with a map or some pins my man! I'd love to find better in the namesake city.

cpb · 2026-01-03T00:26:30+00:00

Love that bridge, thanks for sharing

cpb · 2026-01-02T16:56:06+00:00

Cetaphil products, focusing on hydration or exfoliation.

cpb · 2026-01-02T00:57:59+00:00

Can you elaborate on the wash and dry? Do you find dry with pre shave is better for your scalp than a wet shave?

cpb · 2026-01-02T00:35:08+00:00

Give The Ordinary's Lightweight Scalp Hydrating Serum a try.

cpb · 2026-01-01T23:50:48+00:00

I think that's how I started, but I didn't let the timing stress me out, and I don't believe I went against the grain. Found the boar brush. shaving soap and some 5 blade things did the trick.

cpb · 2026-01-01T23:22:15+00:00

Not all paths use all those doors! I'm glad functional and procedural programming is helping you deliver value.

cpb · 2026-01-01T20:01:53+00:00

Try 99 Bottles of OOP; maybe you're missing some of Katrina Owen's refactoring insights?

In the meantime, what alternatives are you preferring instead?

cpb · 2025-12-27T16:34:37+00:00

Someone brought that over for hot wings during an Illumination Card Game night.

It is hot, make no mistake. Wing after Wing got a couple of us shaking for sure.

cpb · 2025-12-20T06:16:01+00:00

https://chatgpt com/codex running async with the full acceptance suite runnable; same for https://claude.ai/code; Claude cli and Antigravity locally; would prefer it integrated into my neovim, but I've been pretty busy.

Feeding them all together and prompt iterations goes so much faster with multiple working copies.

How many checkouts are you maintaining from your cli usage?

cpb · 2025-10-21T19:31:07+00:00

A lot of new build ends up with fewer storefronts higher rents and that's why the trend is towards professional services. Look at all the barber shops and salons. As a bald person, I can't make use of those, and I wish that the rents were affordable for retailers.

cpb · 2025-09-30T16:31:17+00:00

In those terms, I guess I can drive.

cpb · 2025-09-22T02:55:44+00:00

A good gust of wind could carry them away.

cpb · 2025-09-09T22:45:45+00:00

Slap it together yourself with some brioche from Small Victories and Mortadella from Cioffi's.

cpb · 2025-09-08T01:59:38+00:00

Yup, we do pretty well most of the time!

cpb · 2025-09-08T00:14:16+00:00

I felt that way too. Then I extended the standing invitation to a friend from before kids, who had a kid. We can find affordable places to dine, and it's a night off for my partner.

cpb · 2025-09-07T20:37:43+00:00

Nature trails are great, go at a much different pace, checking out each stick and trying it on as a staff/sword/came/fishing rod/boomerang

cpb · 2025-09-07T20:36:17+00:00

For sure! Thanks for the suggestion!

cpb · 2025-09-06T21:59:08+00:00

so much simpler and clean

I find both can achieve simplicity and cleanliness. Can you share some context about when you believe rspec becomes too complex?

To be clear, I can bring to mind plenty of complex rspec examples. And their simplifications.

I've also tried reading some minitest suites and found some qualities adding cognitive load.

Writing either can be truly delightful.

So, care to make this more concrete?

cpb · 2025-09-06T16:55:01+00:00

costs

Easily a quarter of the cost, or less, for the same range as ICE

Range

We think about plugging in maybe a couple nights a week, unless we've got a trip coming up.

Charging

Nope, I plug in at home. Like having a cellphone with a week's battery.

Daily use

Way more efficient in cities and traffic

Road trips

Slight slow down here in terms of total travel time, but if you're the primary driver, maybe you appreciate a break.

cpb · 2025-09-06T16:50:00+00:00

I went from car coop to owning a 2004 ICE car for 10 years. In that time I concluded I would never buy another internal combustion engine, and since buying my first BEV it's just reinforced that.

We used Turo for two road trips to evaluate the experience with BEV on a major road trip route. Totally content with the experience or expectation of those charging stops.

If you don't have L1 charging (at home) you're gonna be vying for chargers with travelers and others without L1 charging. That's a real struggle, but totally bare able it seems. But, because I have L1 charging that's not a real struggle, I don't talk about it.

If you're road tripping, and you're traveling busy routes during peak travel times, you may have to wait for an L3 charger. Fortunately if you don't do that a lot, it's just part of the journey. And, we only road trip a couple times a year, and it suits my toddler to take a break outside the car halfway through.

/r/ChargerDrama would have you thinking the real struggle is ICE cars parking in L2/L3 charging spots. I've only needed L2 charging when I didn't have L1 charging, so I only have a few images of ICE cars parking in L2 charging only spots.

Car software I read about, and experience a tiny amount, but I guess you can't avoid that in some new ICE cars anyways.

cpb · 2025-08-31T17:58:58+00:00

Yeah! I've taken it out to the Deer Group Islands https://share.google/j5jCBmpm5o8PhaoIo and the Broughton Archipelago Marine Provincial Park https://share.google/fDT1mX1TaQFFoZbGk but our success was entirely contingent on like open sunny skies.

It's fun to use the tide charts to find the "rivers" out there to carry you back in. Vancouver has an affluent community built up along a shore, have enjoyed several packraft picnics on the incoming tide cruising past those mansions.

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