I am being barraged with Ruby, Rails and Rich Internet application
work right now. Almost enough that I could quit the day job and make a
go of it, forgetting about Java altogether. Places in the greater
Miami area are turning on to Rails and Ruby – much of it fueled by
the stronger voices in the local Java community.
Am I alone in this, or do many of you see absolutely explosive growth
in Ruby, Rails and all things Web 2.0ish right now?
I see that Bruce Eckel is coming around. When he wrote his article
bashing Ruby a few weeks ago, I knew he was on the verge of being
hooked. First you hate her, then you glance at her, then you are in
her arms. Ruby, that goddamn seductress!
bashing Ruby a few weeks ago, I knew he was on the verge of being
hooked. First you hate her, then you glance at her, then you are in
her arms. Ruby, that goddamn seductress!
LOL. Yes, that’s the case over here, too. I’ve never turned down so
many job offers in my life. It’s a bit flattering, but really I wish
I had something to offer these people instead of an “I’m sorry, I’m
working full-time+ on other projects right now, get back with me in 6
months” response.
I hope this won’t belabor the point too much, but to me Rails seems to
be in that golden phase where demand is greatly increasing because of
the attention it’s receiving from the wider market, yet there is only a
small supply of capable developers to take on new projects.
Every successful technology I’ve been involved with has gone through
this phase where the solo operator can prosper regardless of
geographical location by just putting his/her name out there in the
community and responding to ads on mailing lists/forums/newsgroups.
Eventually the market catches up, rates go down, and proximity and
contacts become the main criteria for securing new work.
My advice to anyone who wants to succeed in contracting is to be aware
of this lifecycle. Now’s the time when the first-movers and
early-adopters get a head start in the marketplace and can use their
momentum to stay ahead of the competition. Then a service-based business
can take the opportunity to grow, perhaps even making the transition to
a product company.
So I hope you expert Rails developers out there are taking advantage of
this time to build your businesses!
It is a treadmill you choose to get on. When it starts to slow you have
to be ready to either keep it moving on your own, or jump to a new
technology.
Thanks Mike,
sean
Mike wrote:
Tom,
I hope this won’t belabor the point too much, but to me Rails seems to
be in that golden phase where demand is greatly increasing because of
the attention it’s receiving from the wider market, yet there is only a
small supply of capable developers to take on new projects.
Every successful technology I’ve been involved with has gone through
this phase where the solo operator can prosper regardless of
geographical location by just putting his/her name out there in the
community and responding to ads on mailing lists/forums/newsgroups.
Eventually the market catches up, rates go down, and proximity and
contacts become the main criteria for securing new work.
My advice to anyone who wants to succeed in contracting is to be aware
of this lifecycle. Now’s the time when the first-movers and
early-adopters get a head start in the marketplace and can use their
momentum to stay ahead of the competition. Then a service-based business
can take the opportunity to grow, perhaps even making the transition to
a product company.
So I hope you expert Rails developers out there are taking advantage of
this time to build your businesses!
I hope this won’t belabor the point too much, but to me Rails seems to
be in that golden phase where demand is greatly increasing because of
the attention it’s receiving from the wider market, yet there is
only a
small supply of capable developers to take on new projects.
snip…
My advice to anyone who wants to succeed in contracting is to be aware
of this lifecycle. Now’s the time when the first-movers and
early-adopters get a head start in the marketplace and can use their
momentum to stay ahead of the competition. Then a service-based
business
can take the opportunity to grow, perhaps even making the
transition to
a product company.
100% agreement.
The bottom line is this, and it’s true for each phase of the lifecycle:
You are worth what the customer will pay. Right now, that number is a
bit
low due to the perception that Rails is “quick and easy” where we all
know
that it’s actually BETTER, and will be more cost effective for the
customer
over time due to conventions, testing, etc.
If we, the early adopters, PROVE these advantages to the customers, by
“Staying on the Rails” as I’m fond of saying, adopting the conventions,
creating unit and functional tests, etc. we’re still at the very early
stage of something that is growing explosively.
This explosion should last years, and will be very good for everyone
involved now.
Instead of ‘I am sorry’, could you route your clients to the
ruby job
site and give your fellow railers a crack at it…
Sure thing. I actually wasn’t aware of a ruby job site… where are
you guys looking? I know of the oreilly developer connection, and
linked-in. Most of the people who contact me seem to do so through
my blog. Thanks for the suggestion!
Am I alone in this, or do many of you see absolutely explosive growth
LOL. Yes, that’s the case over here, too. I’ve never turned down
so many job offers in my life. It’s a bit flattering, but really I
wish I had something to offer these people instead of an “I’m
sorry, I’m working full-time+ on other projects right now, get back
with me in 6 months” response.
Same thing here. I work a full time day job with rails at the
newspaper. but I still work on about 3 or 4 other ruby/rails projects
after work in a consulting role. When i was first getting good at
rails I put it out there that I was available for rails consulting
work and now I still have to turn down two to three or more offers
for work every week. I wish I had a few clones of myself. It’s
absolutely wonderful how the tides are turning and rails and even
ruby itself is hot right now. It used to be very hard to find any
ruby jobs on any job sites but now thats not the case. Many companies
see the advantages of an agile framework and nothing else compares to
rails right now.
We proffesionals are supposed to list ‘best practices’ there.
I think the ‘Set Default Values in Methods’ and the ‘Properly substitute
variables in an SQL Query’ could be considered best practices, but the
other two are best described as tips and tricks. Nothing wrong with tips
and tricks, but best practices are not quick and dirty, they are ways to
“Stay on the Rails”.
Tom, you have given me a phrase that sums up how I was feeling. Best
practices and good design patterns are created because they sum up units
of work in ways that are stable, consistent, reliable, and re-usable.
If rails work gets flooded by a bunch of “MCSE” certificate types, it
will all be tips tricks and quick fixes, with no best practices. The
Rails way is easy because we realise the value of doing things in a
consistent way.
Stay on the rails.
Thanks Tom
-Sean
Tom M. wrote:
100% agreement.
The bottom line is this, and it’s true for each phase of the lifecycle:
You are worth what the customer will pay. Right now, that number is a
bit
low due to the perception that Rails is “quick and easy” where we all
know
that it’s actually BETTER, and will be more cost effective for the
customer
over time due to conventions, testing, etc.
If we, the early adopters, PROVE these advantages to the customers, by
“Staying on the Rails” as I’m fond of saying, adopting the conventions,
creating unit and functional tests, etc. we’re still at the very early
stage of something that is growing explosively.
This explosion should last years, and will be very good for everyone
involved now.
At the local Java Users Group, they mentioned Ruby several times. A
presenter even remarked “If you’re going to learn a new language, Ruby
is probably the best one to pick.”
