Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19h

🎙️ Tyler Lemburg – “The Mutation Game” @ Ideon

- Mutation testing reveals untested logic.
- The Mutant gem automates mutations.
- High coverage pushes cleaner, simpler code.
- Great for APIs; heavy for large Rails apps.

“Your tests cover functionality, not just lines.”

Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19h

🎙️ woodardj.bsky.social – “Ruby on Rails is a Game Engine” @ Atlassian
Built a full 4X strategy game entirely in Rails.

- SaaS patterns fit games perfectly.
- Tools like Turbo + Stimulus enable interactivity.

“You don’t need Unity to build a great game.”

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19h

🎙️ Phillip Campbell – “Sidekiq at Gusto” @ Gusto

- The real bottleneck: your database
- Build early-warning systems (SLA queues, kill switches)
- Maturity = dashboards, playbooks, telemetry

“A 0.0001% error still means thousands of failures daily.”

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19h

🎙️ Joel Hawksley – “5 Years of UI Architecture at GitHub” @ github.com

- UI bugs are production-critical
- Shared systems > custom ones
- Frontend complexity costs 10× more, budget it

“Treat UI complexity like a budget.”

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19h

🎙️ tessgriffin.bsky.social – “Learning Empathy From Pokémon Blue” @ thoughtbot.com

- Small code choices can create huge effects.
- Hardware limits shaped elegant tradeoffs.
- Legacy constraints teach respect for modern guardrails.

“It wasn’t bad code. It was tight code — pushed to the limit.”

Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 20h

Diving into the rmrubyconf.bsky.social talks 🔥

baweaver.bsky.social – “We Who Remember the First Magic” @ One Medical

- Lowering barriers creates opportunity — AI can too
- Automate what you understand, not what you can’t explain

“Magic without wisdom becomes chaos.”

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 6d

A little moment of bragging — got an @xoruby.com pin from @jremsikjr.bsky.social while attending @rmrubyconf.bsky.social.

Looks great and will be a nice reminder of the XO Ruby series and the warm MINASWAN community it represents.

#RockyMountainRuby #XORuby #Ruby #community #MINASWAN

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 7d

T-shirts from Flagrant always look stunning. Love that 👏

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 7d

Checked into Rocky Mountain Ruby and already played a back-and-forth chess game with a fellow Rubyist.

Huge thanks to Spike and Bekki for confirming my chess initiative and even making an announcement on the main stage.

Looking forward to more...🤩

#RockyMountainRuby

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 8d

In Boulder for my first-ever @rmrubyconf.bsky.social.

Looking forward to talks from @baweaver.bsky.social, @tessgriffin.bsky.social, @woodardj.bsky.social, @scottwernervt.bsky.social, @jefflcohen.bsky.social, @drbragg.dev, and others.

Sponsors/Supporters: @cisco.com, @beflagrant.com, etc.

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 10d

🚨 Growth brings surprises. At our hybrid #ChicagoRuby meetup, a Zoom guest hijacked the screen share with explicit content, cutting off the talk mid-sentence. It took me 30s to stop — felt endless. Huge respect to doodling.dev, who recovered instantly and delivered a great talk.

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 12d

📢 #ChicagoRuby #meetup tonight at 6 PM Prism Spaces (Wicker Park)!
Two database-focused talks:
1️⃣ Perfect Database is Too Expensive ( @push.cx )
2️⃣ Schema-based Multi-tenancy → Single Schema ( Prarthana Shiva )

Join in person or on Zoom 👉 us02web.zoom.us/j/8681860540....

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 14d

#ChicagoRuby returns Oct 1 at Prism Spaces
Talks by push.cx &

For in-person attendance 👉 www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...
For online attendance 👉 us02web.zoom.us/j/8184465345...

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 19d

What if automation were about care, not code? And what if doing less made teams more effective?
These bold questions shaped our latest #ChicagoRubyMeetup 🔥 Talks from doodling.dev & jremsikjr.bsky.social

📺 Watch the full recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RsW...

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · 27d

Still experimenting with my chess initiative at Ruby conferences — this time at xoruby.com Chicago. Huge thanks to scottwernervt.bsky.social, Shashank Tripathi for a game and jremsikjr.bsky.social for the organisation. So many insights 🔥

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 11

Do you remember your first Ruby conf?🔥 Excitement, nerves, or both?

My colleague Anastasiia is about to feel it at her first bsky.app/profile/euru... in Lisbon. If you’re there, please say hi and help her through that “I don’t know anyone” moment

Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 10

Our September #ChicagoRuby #meetup starts in just 30 minutes ⏳. If you’re attending in person — come say hi! Can’t join onsite? Watch live on Zoom us02web.zoom.us/j/8184465345.... Thanks to @movebeyonddebt.bsky.social for hosting and to @jremsikjr.bsky.social & @doodling.dev for giving talks today!

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 8

Just days ago we enjoyed xoruby.com Chicago, and now it’s only 2 days until our #ChicagoRuby meetup! 📍222 N LaSalle | Sept 10, 6–8:30 PM → www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...

Plus: xoruby.com in Atlanta, NOLA, Portland, San Diego & Austin → www.xoruby.com

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 6

Hanging out with the warm, friendly #Ruby #community at @xoruby.com is awesome, but add a few chess battles, and it gets even better! After #RailsConf2025, it’s back: find the chess board at the back near the A/V station, play, challenge me, or just have fun at #XORuby 😁

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 4

🔥 Just 2 days until xoruby.com Chicago — the biggest Ruby event in the city! 🔥

Fulton Street Collective | 🕘 Sat, Sept 6 | 9 AM–5 PM | 🎟 Tickets → www.xoruby.com/event/chicago/
Single-day, single-track, speakers, fun, and…♟️chess matches! Ping me if you want a game

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Sep 2

Dear Rubyists, ever met a Ruby engineer who’s also a LinkedIn Top Voice? I did — Chaitali Khangar [ www.linkedin.com/in/chaitalik... ]. We discussed her Rails journey, why mentoring is more effective than event organising, the importance of embracing mistakes, and India’s growing Ruby community.

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Aug 29

#ChicagoRuby news ⭐️ September meetup moved to Wed, Sept 10 with 2 local speakers: Aji Slater & bsky.app/profile/jrem.... Hosted by Beyond Finance — registration required: www.meetup.com/chicagoruby/...

Also, XO Ruby hits Chicago Sat, Sept 6: xoruby.com/event/chicago

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Aug 28

It's rather that seeing how many flaws any systems I saw in small businesses have and how squishy they are (including mine), I'm looking for something better.

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Aug 28

On the one hand, probably never; on the other hand, my current assumption is that:
"systematic regular interviewer" > "automation" > "unsystematic irregular interviewer", but that's still just a guess I'm exploring

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Anton Tkachov @antontkachov.bsky.social · Aug 28

Aji, thanks for a good point. I know that there are certain frameworks and best practices on how to be less biased and perform a relatively objective comparison between candidates. That said, I doubt that experts who interview occasionally on demand know, explore, or follow any of them 🤔

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