Panel: Charles Max Wood

Guest: Benjamin Wood

This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Benjamin Wood. Ben and his brother Josh own a consultancy company together called Hint, where they specialize in upgrading Rails apps and run UpgradeRails.com. He first got into programming because he was interested in computer hardware and built a computer out of spare parts for fun as a child. They talk about what led him to Ruby and Rails, what he has learned in throughout his life, especially with running a business, and much more!

In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

Ruby Rogues Episode 288
Hint and UpgradeRails.com
How did you first get into programming?
Interested in computer hardware
Built a computer as a kid
Grew up in time of dial up internet
Discovered his house had two phone lines
Snook extra fax line into his room to get internet
Fell in love with the internet as a child
PHP and DSL
Built forums to keep in touch with friends
Created content management systems with PHP
WordPress
Started a career in audio engineering
Ran a recording studio for 6 years
Built a website for the studio
Started with JavaScript
How did you find Rails?
Wanted a change of career
Self-taught
Sub-contracting with his brother
HoneyBadger
What have you learned?
And much, much more!

Links:

Ruby Rogues Episode 288
Hint
UpgradeRails.com
Rails
WordPress
Ruby
JavaScript
HoneyBadger
Ben’s GitHub
@benjaminwood
BenjaminWood.org

Picks:

Charles

Serverless
Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden
Delegation Roadmap
New Ruby podcast on YouTube and Amazon Alexa to come

Benjamin

Tiny Desk Concerts
Robin Olson Tiny Desk Concert
Serverless

Twitter Mentions