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I will now introduce our next speaker, Amy Wall.
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I think this is an amazing start for Saturday because first of all, Amy is a software developer at Thoughtbot. She is originally from Omaha, Nebraska, and she was a writer, editor, and project manager before discovering her love for technology and changing careers.
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Amazing! She moved to Berlin in 2017 and then to Bristol in 2020. She loves figuring out ways to collaborate and work better remotely.
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Now, about her talk: The last year has been hard on all of us; cutting through the bad news and the mundanity has required resilience, creativity, and determination. Thankfully, we have had a secret weapon to keep us occupied: Ruby. Join Amy as she explores some of the good, the bad, and the just plain hilarious ideas that Rubyists have been working on during lockdown. Amy will survey Ruby lovers of all levels to see what has been holding their attention during this difficult year. She will also share her own experience of staying busy, including her adventure building an 'On Air' alert system for Zoom in her home office space using Ruby.
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So, Amy, it's your turn. Thank you very much. Hello and good morning from Bristol, cloudy, foggy Bristol! I'm really excited to be here. Like you said, my name is Amy Wall, and I'm a developer at Thoughtbot. This is my first time at Euruko, and it's my first talk altogether. So, I want to thank the Euruko organizers for putting this talk together and for giving me a chance to speak—I'm really excited.
00:02:05
I'll start by telling you a little bit about myself. A little of this was in the introduction that was just read, but I am originally from Omaha, Nebraska, which you might be able to tell from my accent. It’s really close to the middle of the United States, probably one of the points in the U.S. that's furthest from any coast or any water. The actual slogan for Nebraska, written by the Nebraska tourism commission, is 'Nebraska: Honestly, it’s not for everyone,' which I think is pretty accurate.
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Another slogan is 'Lucky for you, there's nothing to do here,' which again I think is quite accurate, along with 'Famous for our flat boring landscape.' So that's where I come from. I decided in 2017 that it was time to move on, to get out of Nebraska and have a new adventure, which is how I found myself in Berlin — one of my favorite cities in the world.
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I lived in Berlin for a few years while working remotely for a U.S. company, so I had a lot of experience being in a different time zone than most of my colleagues and figuring out how to work remotely even before the pandemic started. I got used to this environment where everyone is now working from home. Later on in my talk, I hope to share some tips and tricks from things I’ve learned through this time, especially about working in remote situations and in different time zones.
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Last year, during the middle of the pandemic, I moved to Bristol, where I currently live. I'm really enjoying it, still getting a feel for the city and trying to understand how often it rains in the United Kingdom, but I'm getting there. So that’s where I am coming from today: Bristol. Now, I want to talk to you about lockdown.
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It's been rough; it’s been a really hard past year. Here are a couple of articles I found on how hard it’s been—though I think we all know none of you need to see this. It’s been a really challenging time; everyone has been stuck at home, and many have become ill. I know this has taken a toll on all of us, which is why I wanted to present something a little bit inspirational today.
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What we're doing here with Ruby and what we can do as software developers and technologists is exciting and positive, with many cool things coming out of it. My intention with this talk is to share with you some fantastic projects that have been built with Ruby and hopefully inspire you to create some of your own side projects or realize some of your own ideas.
00:06:03
This talk isn’t actually about lockdown; it's about ideas. One of my favorite things about Ruby is how easy it is to come up with an idea and realize it quickly. It makes it one of those languages that’s really human-readable and straightforward, and as a result, there is just so much that you can do with it. It's incredibly versatile.
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During the lockdown, I spent long hours inside, thinking about some creative ways to use that time. I want to share a couple of ideas I thought of and worked on building with Ruby and some ideas I gathered from friends, colleagues, and mentors.
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My first lockdown idea came about because, like many others, I started determined to make it the most productive time I could imagine. I had this huge list of things I wanted to do and get better at. I thought about building a simple to-do list app where I could input all these tasks and their parameters, like how high of a priority it was.
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The app would then create a scheduled day for all the things I planned to do. However, as you can see from this calendar I made, by October 2020, things turned out a bit differently than planned. If I managed to get out of bed, I considered that a win.
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That was one of my ideas, and I still hope to revive it and use it during non-lockdown times because I always think it's fun to have a to-do list. This was one of the first things I learned to build in Ruby, and I still enjoy creating them.
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The next idea emerged because my partner frequently walked into the background of my Zoom meetings. My colleagues became quite familiar with Ben’s presence during my calls. So, I thought, 'What do you do when your partner keeps walking into the background of your work meetings?' You build something in Ruby, of course!
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My goal was to create an on-air alert system to notify Ben when I was in a meeting. I started by purchasing a smart light that changed colors and set it up with a REST API. This way, once everything was configured, I could easily manage the light—turning it on and off, changing the colors, and performing other functions all through code.
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Finally, I connected it to my meeting platform and used an application I created a couple of years ago to trigger the API. Though this concept isn’t fully developed yet, and Ben and I have constructed a few other systems to avoid interruptions during video calls, it’s been a fun adventure to explore this idea within the Ruby language.
00:11:29
Now, I want to talk about many of the other ideas I've encountered. I said this talk was about ideas, and the examples I have shared so far were a couple of ways I've kept myself engaged during the lockdown. However, I also want to address some of the ideas that my friends, mentors, and the wider Ruby community have developed during this time.
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According to GitHub’s 2020 productivity report, there was a significant increase in open-source contributions after the pandemic began. They noted that more pull requests were submitted, more pushes were reviewed, and increasingly, people were working on personal projects and coding over weekends.
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With all of this happening, I wanted to see what people were working on. I asked around, and approximately 47% of the side projects I gathered were productivity tools. That shows how working remotely can encourage us to be productive and develop our tools to help with that.
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In addition to productivity tools, 11% of projects focused on vaccination efforts and volunteering. This work is inspiring, as many developers in the Ruby community contributed to projects that helped people during the pandemic. It feels great to know there are developers out there making a difference.
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I also found that 11% of the projects were digital implementations of board games or card games, which was some of the feedback I received. I was a little surprised that the number wasn’t higher, but I also suspect that if I had surveyed more people, I would have found more games.
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Along with games, 11% of projects were focused on tools for probability and statistics, and some projects even involved fun pranks! This categorization is intended to give a fun overview of what developers in the Ruby community have been working on during this time.
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Now I want to share some specific ideas I came across from people I spoke with about their projects. These are presented in no particular order, just the ones that I received permission to share and had accompanying images.
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Here’s the first idea: a digital version of the board game Root created by a colleague of mine. This project makes it easier to spend your time indoors and engage in fun ways with others.
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Another idea I received was a digital version of the card game Control, also by a colleague. This is another fun game to share and play.
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Next up is a project by my colleague David. He created a property scraper that helps individuals find homes for sale in their desired areas by alerting them when listings are live. He managed to find his own home using this tool, which is really exciting!
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Another fantastic project is called Music Taco, created by my product manager Jared. This app helps users find the cheapest places to buy digital albums online while tracking favorite artists and sending release notifications. It's a simple yet effective tool tailored for music lovers.
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Finally, I want to mention a Rails project called Solargraph. Many of you might be familiar with it, as it aims to improve language support in code editors. If anyone is looking for a project to contribute to, this one is seeking contributors!
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There are so many projects by developers in the Ruby community. In fact, as of yesterday, there were 271,171 public repositories on GitHub that identified Ruby as the primary language. You all have been very, very busy, and I love to see it!
00:21:56
Now let's shift gears and talk about another change we've all experienced this past year: the transition to remote work. Many of us might be familiar with remote work already, but for a lot of people, it has been a significant shift.
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According to a survey from Gartner conducted last year, 82% of company leaders plan to allow remote work to continue in some capacity post-pandemic, especially within software development. Working from anywhere, including home, is becoming the new normal, particularly for Ruby developers.
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These practices we've developed during the lockdown are likely to become part of our future work life. Some companies have committed to long-term remote options, including Twitter, Square, Shopify, and others.
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The quick transition toward remote work was not seamless for everyone; one survey noted that 27% of people reported difficulties unplugging from work or establishing boundaries while working from home.
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Having worked remotely for about three and a half years, I was the sole remote employee in my company for a significant time. I want to share some tips on remote work that I believe can make it more effective.
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Tip number one: communicate way more than you think is necessary. This is essential because if you can't see someone's face or body language, it's challenging to gauge their thoughts and feelings. Having continuous communication helps fill the gaps.
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I would also recommend that, if possible, make your communication asynchronous. This approach helps ensure no one misses information, especially when working across multiple time zones.
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Tip number two is to pair program as much as possible. Some may not enjoy pair programming, but it ensures everyone stays on the same page and fosters team unity.
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Consider sending messages in a group instead of one-on-one. This helps avoid the feeling of loneliness that can come with remote work while simultaneously increasing collective engagement.
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Another effective tip is to have a virtual meeting open where people can drop in whenever they want. This can help prevent feelings of isolation.
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Also, consider scheduling social events like casual lunch meetings or happy hours. It’s important to have some opportunities for non-work social interactions, especially during lockdown.
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Keeping your camera on during calls, whenever possible, can also enhance the experience. It allows everyone to see facial expressions, which leads to more engaging conversations.
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In terms of setting boundaries, this is especially important when working remotely. I experienced this myself when I was the only remote worker in a different time zone. It’s vital to establish clear boundaries to avoid burnout.
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Another tip is to maintain shared documents where everyone can edit. This helps consolidate attention and makes collaboration easier.
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One major point is to not assume that everyone knows what you're discussing. It can often be surprising how much information hasn't been relayed.
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Finally, don’t forget to embrace the awkwardness. Technical glitches and communication barriers will happen, and fretting over them can lead to frustration. It's essential to breathe through these moments.
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In conclusion, I wanted to emphasize that underlining everything I've discussed today is the human element. The community aspect of Ruby development is what makes this experience incredible.
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I want to express my gratitude to all of you for being here today, sharing your ideas with the world, and bringing your energy. Thank you very much!
00:35:30
This is my Twitter, which I am working on being more active on, so feel free to follow or interact.
00:35:47
Thank you, Amy! This was indeed a lot of amazing tips. It’s all about humans, as you mentioned. Technology is a fantastic tool, but we need to remember that we're all human. Luckily, we have this amazing Ruby community to enhance our work and build a better world.
00:36:54
There are a lot of thank-yous coming in from the chat, appreciating your great tips. Let's move into questions. Are you ready?
00:37:17
The questions begin with tools for remote pair programming. You've had some great insights into maintaining a work-life balance while remote—several good questions were asked regarding document sharing, work emails, personal hobbies, and team events. Amy shared her latest experiences, recommending tools for collaboration.
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Lastly, Amy closed with a special note on how these discussions nurture human connection, and the importance of maintaining that connection in the face of challenges.