Episode 547: Special Guest Andy Croll

Andy Kroll joins the podcast to talk about Brighton Ruby, the impact AI is having on software development, and how the changing technology landscape is affecting everything from conference budgets to engineering teams. Andy shares how tools like Claude Code have changed his day-to-day work, making previously neglected projects more achievable while putting even more emphasis on code review, judgment, and maintaining a sustainable Rails application. They also dig into one of the harder questions created by AI: how do you interview software engineers when take-home coding exercises and traditional technical tests are increasingly easy to hand off to a model? Andy explains how CoverageBook is approaching hiring by focusing on product thinking, decision-making, real-world code review, and conversations that more closely resemble actually working together. The conversation also turns to the challenges of organizing Brighton Ruby, why Andy is taking a year off from the conference, David’s interest in someday organizing a Ruby conference of his own, and why keeping financial risk under control may be the most important lesson for a first-time conference organizer. Finally, they look ahead to Rails World and reflect on one of the biggest reasons conferences still matter: getting Ruby developers out from behind their screens and into a room with people who understand what they do. Sponsor Judoscale: https://judoscale.com/