Giant Robots: thoughtbot Blog

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A JavaScript developer's guide to Rails: ActiveRecord Fundamentals

Learn how Rails ActiveRecord differs from JavaScript ORMs and why the database-first approach eliminates boilerplate.
Will Larry
February 4, 2026
- Web
- Best Practices
- Ruby
- Rails
- JavaScript
- Development
The Bike Shed Ep 492: Defining value within your team

Sally and Aji assess some common metrics for success when working a project and how they may not always provide the clearest picture of how things are going.
Sally Hall and Aji Slater
February 3, 2026
- Podcast
Giant Robots Podcast Ep 601: The thing that makes us human

Chad and Will examine the ever expanding AI bubble and ponder on what we can expect it to see evolve in the coming years.
Chad Pytel and Will Larry
January 29, 2026
- Podcast
What do our workspaces look like? (2026 Edition)

Come and see some of thoughtbot’s fabulous workspaces.
Rob Whittaker
January 29, 2026
A JavaScript developer's guide to Rails: What does Composition Over Inheritance mean?

Rails framework code is full of inheritance magic, but your application code doesn’t have to be. Learn how composition makes dependencies explicit, testing easier, and debugging a breeze—using patterns you already know from JavaScript.
Will Larry
January 28, 2026
- Web
- Best Practices
- Ruby
- Rails
- JavaScript
- Development
The Bike Shed Ep 491: Influences that shaped our thinking

Joël and Aji reference their personal bibliographies as they compare the different influences that have shaped their programmer world view.
Joël Quenneville and Aji Slater
January 27, 2026
- Podcast
What Shoulda Matchers Is Actually Doing For You

Rails model specs full of setup and error-message checks? There’s a reason so many teams replace them using shoulda-matchers. We’ll look at what those expectations are doing, how they make your tests more resilient to changes, and a lot less noisy.
Matheus Sales
January 23, 2026
- RSpec
- Rails
- Shoulda
- Ruby
- Testing
Giant Robots Podcast Ep 600: The Special One

Celebrate Giant Robots’ 600th episode in style as Sami pulls together thoughtbot staff old and new to celebrate this monumental milestone.
Chad Pytel, Will Larry & Sami Birnbaum
January 22, 2026
- Podcast
A JavaScript developer's guide to Rails: Where Does Everything Come From?

Discover where Rails methods come from and solve the biggest confusion JavaScript developers face when learning Rails.
Will Larry
January 21, 2026
- Web
- Best Practices
- Ruby
- Rails
- JavaScript
- Development
- Learning
The Bike Shed Ep 490: Large Language Misadventure

Aji and Sally sit down to dissect the complicated beast that is AI.
Sally Hall and Aji Slater
January 20, 2026
- Podcast
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