How We Chose Infrastructure for 80+ News Apps (And What It Actually Costs)
We rebuilt a legacy Java app in Rails and evaluated five hosting options. Landed on Linode at $358/month — an 81% reduction from our old $1,925/month stack.
Writings of a Tech Leader, Husband, and Dad
I’m Jonathan, the CTO of Loyal, with over two decades of experience in software development for startups. This space is where I share my experiences, insights, and opinions—both popular and unconventional.
My ramblings will be on mobile and web applications, startup launches, favorite books, user acquisition, user experience, (maybe parenting) and most importantly, driving revenue.
DHH Killed 359 System Tests — and Rails Followed
37signals deleted every system test from HEY in late 2024 and not a single bug slipped through. This decision has reshaped Rails testing orthodoxy. Rails 8.1 no longer generates system tests by default. Here's what replaced them and how to transition from RSpec to Minitest.
Implementing Apple Sign In with Devise in Rails 8
A step-by-step guide to adding Sign in with Apple to a Rails 8 app using Devise and OmniAuth, including a native mobile JWT flow for Hotwire Native iOS apps.
From 6 Codebases to 1: How We Rebuilt PrayAI on Rails 8 + Turbo Native
PrayAI had 35,934 lines of infrastructure code supporting 12,900 lines of app code. We replaced it all with Rails 8, Turbo Native, and 184 lines of infrastructure. Here's the full story with real numbers.
Does AI Actually Boost Developer Productivity?
Stanford studied 100,000 engineers and found AI boosts productivity 15-20%. But your stack, seniority, and prompting strategy determine whether AI makes you 30x faster or just generates bugs.
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