Veteran Rubyist and investor Chad Fowler sits down with hosts Valentino Stoll and Joe Leo to unpack why generative AI is less a magic trick and more the next big layer of abstraction. From his days rewriting Wunderlist in multiple languages to today’s LLM-driven code generation, Chad explains how small, well-typed modules, strong conventions and agent-based workflows could let humans design systems while machines write the code. The trio debate Python vs. Ruby, micro-services vs. monoliths, cognitive load, runtime performance (hello Haskell & Rust) and what it will take for legacy Rails apps—and our careers—to thrive in an AI-first future.

Mentioned In the Show:

MountainWest Ruby Conference — Early Ruby conference where Chad delivered a keynote in 2007 about the future of Ruby.
TLA+ — Formal specification language for verifying distributed systems, discussed in relation to formal verification.
Quint Language — Open-source formal specification language resembling Ruby/JavaScript.
OWL (Web Ontology Language) — Semantic Web language for defining ontologies, cited as inspiration for constraints.
Extreme Programming Immersion (Object Mentor) — XP training course Chad attended, pairing with Kent Beck.
Immutable Infrastructure — Concept Chad advocated, paired with his idea of "disposable code."
Snyk — Security company that auto-generates PRs for dependency and vulnerability fixes, discussed as a precursor to agent workflows.
Specification-Driven Development — You described industry momentum toward specification-driven code assistants.
Claude on Rails — Obie's exploration of using Anthropic's Claude with Ruby on Rails.
ESP32 Dev Kit — IoT hardware Chad experimented with, used in AI-assisted electronics projects.
3D Printing with ChatGPT — General reference to AI-assisted 3D design and printing workflows.

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