• 45 minutes 43 seconds
    336 - Riccardo Carlesso, Co-Organizer of Rubycon Italy

    In this episode I talk with Riccardo Carlesso, Google developer advocate and co-founder of Rubycon, a Ruby conference held in Rimini, Italy in May 2026. Riccardo explains how a joke about PyCon became the conference's name. He covers why they set it up as a Swiss non-profit, and what it's like to deal with taxes in several European countries as an unpaid organizer. He also describes the event itself: no paid speaking slots for sponsors, tagliatelle and free wine at lunch, and a toga party on the beach. We also get into the shared "red" root of Ruby and Rubicon, and SRE toil. Rubycon returns in 2028, after the team brings Euruko to Modena in 2027.

    Links:
    - Rubycon
    - Rubycon 2026 Talks
    - Riccardo Carlesso
    - Nonsense Monthly

    13 November 2026, 1:00 am
  • 53 minutes 33 seconds
    335 - Blastoff Rails: Starting a Ruby Conference from Scratch with Travis Dockter
    In this episode I talk with Travis Dockter, organizer of Blastoff Rails in Albuquerque. When Sin City Ruby and RailsConf both ended, Travis decided to start his own conference. We discuss how cheaply you can run a conference outside a big city (about $2,400 for a two-day venue), why roughly 40 attendees turned out to be the right size, and attendees who flew in from Brazil and Puerto Rico. We also talk about the "stone soup" way of having an impact on the community, giving people plenty of time between talks to socialize, and how a single-track conference gives everyone a shared experience.

    Links:
    - Blastoff Rails
    - Blastoff Rails on X
    - Blastoff Rails on Bluesky
    - Travis on LinkedIn
    - Travis on X
    - Travis on Bluesky
    - Nonsense Monthly
    11 November 2026, 5:00 pm
  • 55 minutes 2 seconds
    334 - Merge Queues and Building Mergify with Julien Danjou
    In this episode I talk with Julien Danjou, CEO of Mergify, about merge queues: why PRs that pass CI separately can still break main together, and how testing changes in a queue keeps main green. We discuss how Mergify grew out of OpenStack and open-source networks, why a "book a call" link beat a Stripe checkout for sales, selling on ROI after the 2022 budget cuts, and how AI-driven code volume is making merge queues more necessary.

    Links:
    - Mergify
    - Julien Danjou's Blog
    - The Origin Story of Merge Queues
    - SaturnCI
    - Nonsense Monthly
    10 November 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 57 minutes 4 seconds
    333 - Kevin Dias, Author of The Problem-First Method

    In this episode, I talk with Kevin Dias about his journey from investment banking to programming in Japan, building Ambiki for speech language pathologists, and tackling feature requests with a problem-first mindset.

    Links:
    - Ambiki
    - Kevin's Personal Site
    - The Problem-First Method (book)
    - Kevin on LinkedIn
    - ProZ.com
    - Nonsense Monthly

    9 November 2026, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 3 minutes
    332 - Roy Tomeij, Co-Founder of AppSignal

    In this episode I talk with Roy Tomeij, co-founder of AppSignal, about how AppSignal started in 2012 as a Rails-only APM tool when everyone used New Relic, and how it grew to support Elixir and other languages. Roy explains how its first customers came from co-founder Thijs biking around Amsterdam, why usability was the big selling point, and why aiming for "80% of what competitors have" works. We also talk about brand marketing for small companies: sponsoring conferences like Rails World, handing out stroopwafels, and investing in community without measurable ROI.

    Links:
    - AppSignal
    - Roy Tomeij's Website
    - Roy Tomeij on LinkedIn
    - Nonsense Monthly

    6 November 2026, 3:00 pm
  • 57 minutes 15 seconds
    331 - Eleni Konior on Using AI Without Reinventing the Wheel

    In this episode I talk with Eleni Arvanitis Konior, returning to the show, about the downsides of AI: people using it to reinvent the wheel, AI slop in code and on social media, the hype, and rising costs. We also discuss why proven practices like TDD still matter, and how to guide AI toward writing better tests.

    Links:
    - Eleni's personal website
    - Martin Fowler's testing resources
    - Nonsense Monthly

    5 November 2026, 12:00 am
  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    330 - Irina Nazarova on SF Ruby Conference, Structured Networking, and Ruby Hiring
    In this episode I talk with Irina Nazarova, CEO of Evil Martians and organizer of SF Ruby, about the 2026 San Francisco Ruby Conference. We get into her plan to make structured networking half the program: intros on stage, matching people into small groups, and sessions that connect startup founders with engineers. We also talk about why Ruby hiring feels broken for both employers and job seekers, the conference's free startup job board, and why San Francisco has more Ruby companies than anywhere else.

    Links:
    - Evil Martians
    - SF Ruby Conference
    - San Francisco Ruby Meetup
    - Nonsense Monthly
    3 November 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 1 hour 17 seconds
    329 - Adam Dawkins, CTO of Dragon Drop, Returns

    In this episode I talk with Adam Dawkins about the paradigm shift in development with AI, how expectations have changed, and the essential principles of good software design. We discuss the balance between AI-generated and manually crafted solutions, and the importance of iterative design.

    Links:
    - Dragon Drop
    - Adam Dawkins' Website
    - Nonsense Monthly

    2 November 2026, 11:00 pm
  • 26 minutes 57 seconds
    328 - Mike Bowler - Agile Coach, Trainer & Consulting Hypnotist

    In this episode I talk with Mike Bowler about teaching psychological safety in teams, using affect labeling to manage stress, and exploring motivation models like self-determination theory. We also discuss Mike's approach to organizational consulting and his experiences with corporate training.

    Links:
    - Mike's website
    - Nonsense Monthly

    28 October 2026, 10:00 pm
  • 56 minutes 11 seconds
    327 - Will Carey, CTO of Brand New Box

    In this episode I talk with Will Carey, CTO of Brand New Box, about evolving software development practices, the shifting role of AI in coding, and the importance of understanding client needs. We also dive into Will's unique code editor project, Reins, and the importance of observability in development.

    Links:
    - Will Carey on Twitter
    - Brand New Box
    - Reins on GitHub
    - Nonsense Monthly

    5 September 2026, 5:00 pm
  • 56 minutes 52 seconds
    326 - Bruno Sutic, Creator of RailsBilling

    In this episode, I talk with Bruno Sutic about his journey creating Ruby and Rails projects, including a modern broken link checker and RailsBilling, a gem for advanced Stripe subscription integrations. We discuss the complexities of billing integration and his insights into the ever-evolving Stripe ecosystem.

    Links:
    - Bruno Sutic's Personal Site
    - RailsBilling
    - Nonsense Monthly

    31 August 2026, 6:00 pm
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