The Calm Before the Conf

I’m attending my first RubyConf tomorrow in L.A. This really is my first technical conference that I have ever attended. It is awesome that my employee is putting the time and money into growing me, and I really hope that I can use this as a learning experience, as well as growing my knowledge about the Ruby community. I was a Java engineer for 12 years, and maybe attended 1 or 2 meetups, for me there wasn’t that much community there, also I was encouraged to learn more but none of my employers ever sent me to a conference. In the 5 months that I have been a Ruby engineer, I have been encouraged so much more to reach out, and get connected.

I did write some goals for the conference, and for me what I am going to try and take out of this is:

1. Learn more about Ruby data structures.
2. Attend a talk on Ruby design patterns
3. Find an open source project to contribute to
4. Learn more about Ruby testing philosophies and frameworks

With my own Ruby learning, I have started up Flawless Ruby offered Avid of Grimm of Ruby Tapas (which I am also planning on checking out). Wrapped up Practical Object-Oriented Design by Sandi Metz, which has kicked off my wanting to bone up further on Ruby design patterns. Also I am continuing on Learn Ruby the Hard Way, but feel kind of stalled in it. It is almost too basic for someone who comes from a development background. I like how he is trying to use route learning, to get you to really remember the code and lessons, but the pacing is pretty slow. Right now next on my reading list is The Ruby Way. I plan on digging into some Rails learning next, but I wanted to have my Ruby foundation solid first before diving into something else. Then after rails, I know my front end skill are in sore need of some help. I think I might just go with some basic JavaScript skill first and then maybe some Vue. Any suggestions for where to start for increasing your front end knowledge when for back-end engineers?