Erudition and Inanity

I should have posted these a long time ago, but better late than never: the slides from the presentation I gave at last month’s Boston RubyGroup on Handshake are available here in PDF format, and I’ve embedded the video below. I hate seeing myself on camera, so I haven’t watched it yet. Stay put for the big finish, where my laptop’s battery runs out of juice.

I haven’t had much chance to work on Handshake recently, no excuse really, but with any luck I’ll get a chance to push out another release of that and RubySearch before Sunday. Then I’m on to Chicago for a two-day initiation at ThoughtWorks, my new employer, followed by a six-week training session in India. I can’t wait.

Update: I’m not sure if I made this clear below, so just for the record: ThoughtWorks is a cool company with a great reputation and I’m thrilled to be joining them. All of my comments below should be taken in the spirit of that statement.

I’m tickled pink to announce that I’ve accepted a job with ThoughtWorks as some kind of Ruby guy and so I’m moving from Boston to Chicago to live the dream of 80-100% travel to places that are not Chicago. I thought it might be worth explaining briefly why I chose them.

In short: I get to work in Ruby (apparently), on a diverse range of projects, in diverse settings, at considerably greater job security than I might find at a startup; I expect to learn a tremendous amount about developing good software; it’s a change of scenery and a chance to travel; everyone at the interview impressed me, and were kind enough to let me geek out over Handshake, yea, even unto the whiteboard; and significantly, I couldn’t find anything credibly negative about the company, either from former employees or outside observers. If they suffer from a little hubris, well, there are far worse sins to have.

I’d also like to note that everyone I met at the interview event, in particular their founder Roy, was remarkably and even alarmingly candid. It was a breath of fresh air.

The job starts on June 18th, and shortly thereafter I’ll be attending ThoughtWorks University for six weeks. I’ve always wanted to see India. I also have to relocate to Chicago between now and then; I don’t know anything about the city, and if anyone has any advice about living and working there I’d love to hear it.