Important Shock

Matt Aimonetti, author of the Rails on the Run blog, recently posted a controversial article in which he asserted this belief that new Rails developers are being sabotaged by the multitude of pre-written and reliable components available to them:

The problem is that a generation of Rubyists has grown up being used to getting everything pre written for them. They haven’t yet passed the “Duplo stage” and basically write applications putting a few blocks together, only writing 10 to 20% and barely understand 5%. 

Unfortunately, Matt is wrong - and not only that, but he’s being elitist.

 OK, so maybe he’s not that wrong. But he’s definitely not correct. This line of thinking is harmful to the Rails community at large, and much more so than any clueless newbie could be. Though this argument, Matt is separating the community into two sides: on one hand, those like DHH, Jamis Buck, and Michael Koziarski, who know Rails inside and out (and not just how to build Rails applications, but the inner workings of Rails), build Rails components, and have a fundamental grasp on the advantages and disadvantages posed by the Web, and on the other the Typical Newbie, who mashes pre-assembled parts into a hideous, insecure conglomerate of which he has only the most superficial understanding.

This is not true. There are many people - I count myself among them - that use components not because we’re too lazy or stupid to understand how they work, but because we’re focused on creating things that nobody else has yet. Reinventing the wheel is immensely frustrating, boring, and a waste of time; Rails components allow us to avoid reinvention and focus on what matters, and to condemn this mindset simply because not all developers have the time or energy to understand every tool they’re using is absurdly foolish.

Fundamentally, Matt is also hurting himself with this statement, as in condemning the low end of Rails development he’s furthering the stereotype that Rails developers are either cretins or douchebags. Jeff Atwood put it a little too bluntly when he stated (somewhat in jest) when he stated the following:

when you’re using Rails and OS X, you’re using the platform of choice for douchebags. 

But frankly, attacking newbies who are attracted to Rails by the promise of never having to write Yet Another Damn Authentication System is going to make you seem like a douchebag. And sure, there is a problem with newbies who refuse to understand that programming is not merely a matter of snapping components together. But that isn’t a problem specific to Rails; it’s everywhere, in server-side, desktop, and enterprise software, in Python, C++, and Ruby, on OS X, Windows and Linux. To blame an entire community for allowing this to happen is ludicrous and ultimately harmful.

Addendum: Matt published an extension of his ideas in this post, in which he clarifies certain aspects of his ideas. Go! Read it!