Build and Learn CJ Avilla, Colin Loretz

In this episode, we talk with Chris Oliver about his deliberate approach to building GoRails and his other businesses on Rails. In a tech world that only seems to be moving faster and faster, we discuss the slow and steady path he has followed to create a fulfilling life for himself and his team while shipping awesome Rails things for his customers.
Some links to things we discussed:

Build Your Saas Episode: Nobody in SaaS wants to talk about this
Build Your SaaS Episode: Super Fun SaaS Sales Tax (Part Deux)

Die With Zero book

Some of the things Chris and his team work on:

GoRails
Jumpstart Rails
Hatchbox Hosting
The Remote Ruby Podcast
and many other things you can find at https://excid3.com/

In this episode, we're joined by Alan Shreve, the founder and CEO of ngrok, to discuss the future of software development and the emergence of innovative tools that simplify complex tasks -- like ingress. We talk about ngrok's solid approach to error handling, which enhances troubleshooting and user experience by assigning unique codes to each error. The conversation also delves into the evolution of ngrok, an "ingress as a service" platform designed to streamline the setup of web application infrastructure by abstracting complexities of networking, thereby reducing your workload.
We address the challenges in distributed systems and the importance of automating processes, focusing on the role of tools like Heroku, Vercel, and CloudFlare in managing infrastructure and security. We explore the concept of edge computing and globally distributed applications, envisioning two potential futures - one with advanced storage layers handling global distribution and another where applications can split between the origin and the global edge.
The discussion also highlights the shift in the industry away from tasks like memory management and assembly language and the rise of cloud-based tools, which lowers the barrier to entry for new developers. Despite the potential pitfalls of abstraction, like the reduced need for developers to tinker and learn, we see this as a positive development. We wrap by emphasizing the end goal of software development - delivering a product that serves the customer's needs, facilitated by tools that simplify and standardize the development process.
Resources:

ngrok: ingress as a service - https://ngrok.com

Introducing ngrok-go - https://ngrok.com/blog-post/ngrok-go

ngrok-go library - https://github.com/ngrok/ngrok-go

Introducing ngrok-rs - https://ngrok.com/blog-post/ngrok-rs

Vim plugin for GitHub CoPilot - https://github.com/github/copilot.vim

Stripe's Embeddable Payment Components - https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-element

CJ and Colin are back to chat about getting outside, recap the recent RailsConf and discuss building and participating in developer communities in 2023.
Getting Outside


The Nature Fix book
Outside 365
RailsCamp in Hawaii

RailsConf 2023 and Webhooks Workshop

Webhooks Workshop Github Repo 
Marp Markdown Presentation Tool
Ruby Central YouTube Channel 
RubyConf San Diego


Some other cool events/conferences that we've attended

Blue Ridge Ruby Conf
Rails SaaS
RailsConf
RubyConf
RailsWorld
LaraCon
WordCamp
GDC
Apple’s WWDC
Google I/O
Startup Weekends
NASA Space Apps
Follow us on Twitter

@buildandlearn_
@cjav_dev
@colinloretz

In this episode, Colin and CJ discuss using the new GPT tools for work and play.

Open AI
Large language models
Generative AI
How do we use it, and is it going to be doom & gloom?
How We Use It

Brainstorming & riffing on ideas I was building something in React and hadn’t touched React in a few years. I had all this iteration going on in my components to generate dynamic content. Still, I wanted the topmost component to be able to have references to all these components to download them all as images in a zip file.

Assistance with math-based things like animation or rendering graphics 
Example: I had to display a bunch of circles in a 2nd plane in a random pattern
Computers are pretty good at that


Learning how to do something new faster Explain this to me like I’m 5

Summarizing
We use Descript for editing this podcast
Shifting the tone of writing, building a writing style
Writing video scripts
Finding obscure information
Story arcs
Brushes to write tailwind classes
Jokes
DnD character sheets
Bing to find esoteric star wars character that’s buried on Wookiepedia
Doom and gloom or boon?

What does this mean for the future?
Privacy & security concerns Voice clones and scams (create a safe word!)

Productivity + time Are we just going to be expected to be more productive with more output because cApItaLIsM


Constitutional AI (Anthropic) 
give it principles to train on vs having human input
https://www.anthropic.com/index/core-views-on-ai-safety


ChatGPT coauthored a PR to a major open-source project
via Ruby Weekly: How long is it until ChatGPT makes a pull request to Rails? Oh, it (sort of) just happened. Ultimately it's still under the name of Rails core team member Guillermo Iguaran, however.Everything in this pull request, including the code, tests, changelog, commit message, pull request title and description has been created by ChatGPT with some guidance. If you believe ChatGPT is infringing your copyright please let me know.People to follow
(Written by Notion AI)
Here are 5 social media influencers to follow to stay up to date about AI:

Rachel Woods (@the.rachel.woods on TikTok, @rachel_l_woods on Twitter)
Logan.GPT (dev advocate for OpenAI)
Swyx (shares a lot of thoughts on AI)
Lex Fridman (MIT researcher and AI podcaster)
Siraj Raval (AI educator and YouTuber)
Tools
Github Copilot

Copilot X for VS Code & VS Extension
Copilot Docs
Copilot CLI
Copilot Voice
Copilot for PRs
Resources

Wolfram Alpha - How ChatGPT works
Siraj Raval - Automated AI YouTube channel
the.rachel.woods on safe words
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
Anthropic - AI Safety
RubyWeekly - ChatGPT Co-authored PR

In this episode we dig into the HackerRank annual survey that was released a few months ago for 2023 including the top in demand skills from employers in this uncertain tech and economic environment. Note from Colin & CJ: This episode was recorded in November 2022. It is amazing how much changes in a few months.
Languages By Volume of HackerRanks

Java
Python
SQL
C++
Javascript
Bash
C#
Go
Typescript
R
PHP
C
Swift
Ruby
Methodology for languages 

To estimate employer demand for specific programming languages, we looked at HackerRank Work tests where a specific programming language was required, or where specific library questions were asked. Skill demand was estimated by the number of HackerRank Work tests using specific library questions.
On the preference – or supply–side, we tracked submitted languages by candidates when they have multiple options available, as well as their proficiency in those languages. We also included HankerRank Community practice data to get a full spectrum of skill preferences.
Notable these results are not survey results like the Stack Overflow survey
Demand for most languages growing, but not equally
Is there potential bias in the types of companies that use HackerRank? Companies that are more likely to use Java for example

Top 5 Skills in demand 

Problem Solving
Machine Learning
REST APIs
React
HTML/CSS/JS
REST API shows sustained drama-free demand growth 😂
Keep an eye on Go and TypeScript


Outlook

Tech hiring (and everything else) hit headwinds in 2022
Overall, the tech industry continues to growing
Other Links Mentioned

Art of Product Episode Episode 218
Build Your SaaS
Founder's Quest Podcast
Build and Learn around the web


Twitter: @buildandlearn_


Colin: @colinloretz


CJ: @cjav_dev

In this episode about webhooks.fyi, we're joined by Keith Casey from ngrok. You'll hear about webhooks.fyi an information-rich resource for learning how to build and consume webhooks. webhooks.fyi is an open source knowledge base and directory listing and analyzing different webhook providers. We discuss webhook security, signature verification, forward compatibility, and more.
Other Links from the Show

https://webhooks.fyi
ngrok.com

Webhooks to Revolution the Web from @progrium
What are Webhooks 

The Self Provisioning Runtime 
CaseySoftware
Build and Learn around the web- Twitter: @buildandlearn_- Colin: @colinloretz- CJ: @cjav_dev