Aji and Joël talk all things hackerthons and why taking the time to have a little having fun with your work every now and then is important for developers.

Our hosts reflect on their shared experience at a previous RailsConf where they entered a mini hackerthon, why playing around in a creative sandbox is crucial to honing your skills as a dev, and how programming on the fly can teach you a lot about your own strengths and weaknesses. 

—

Read more about <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/blog/rails-rumble-roundup" rel="nofollow">Joël’s entry in Rails Rumble</a>, as well as their participation in the <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/blog/thoughtbot-presentations-good-vibes-from-railsconf-2022" rel="nofollow">RailsConf 2022 mini Hackerthon</a>.

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode <a href="https://judoscale.com/bikeshed" rel="nofollow">Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way</a> (check the link for your free gift!), and <a href="https://www.scoutapm.com/" rel="nofollow">Scout Monitoring</a>.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/" rel="nofollow">Joël Quenneville</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/" rel="nofollow">Aji Slater</a>.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">GitHub page</a>, or check out <a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">our website</a>.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: <a href="mailto:hosts@bikeshed.fm" rel="nofollow">hosts@bikeshed.fm</a>

This has been a <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">thoughtbot</a> podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a> - <a href="https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">BlueSky</a>

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.<a rel="payment" href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot">Support The Bike Shed</a>

<description>Aji and Joël talk all things hackerthons and why taking the time to have a little having fun with your work every now and then is important for developers.
Our hosts reflect on their shared experience at a previous RailsConf where they entered a mini hackerthon, why playing around in a creative sandbox is crucial to honing your skills as a dev, and how programming on the fly can teach you a lot about your own strengths and weaknesses. 
—
Read more about Joël’s entry in Rails Rumble (https://thoughtbot.com/blog/rails-rumble-roundup), as well as their participation in the RailsConf 2022 mini Hackerthon (https://thoughtbot.com/blog/thoughtbot-presentations-good-vibes-from-railsconf-2022).
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (https://judoscale.com/bikeshed) (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring (https://www.scoutapm.com/).
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/) and Aji Slater (https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/).
If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot), or check out our website (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com).
Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm
This has been a thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) - Mastodon (https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot) - BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com)
© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.
</description>

Aji and Joël talk all things hackerthons and why taking the time to have a little having fun with your work every now and then is important for developers.

488: The Playful Portland Programming Paradigm

Joël contributes some thoughts on working with custom attributes as he follows up on last week’s discussion about ActiveModels with Sally.

Joël breaks down how he transforms various strings and objects when working with ActiveModels to simplify more advance workloads, as Sally queries their different use cases and how best to utilise them for her own workflow.

—

<a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">Catch up on Sally and Aji’s episode from last week on ActiveModels before diving into this discussion!</a>

If you’d like to give some of the gems mentioned in this episode a try for yourself they can be found here - <a href="https://github.com/daddyz/phonelib" rel="nofollow">phonelib</a> - <a href="https://github.com/RubyMoney/money-rails" rel="nofollow">money-rails</a> - <a href="https://github.com/rhannequin/astronoby" rel="nofollow">astronoby</a>

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode <a href="https://judoscale.com/bikeshed" rel="nofollow">Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way</a> (check the link for your free gift!), and <a href="https://www.scoutapm.com/" rel="nofollow">Scout Monitoring</a>.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/" rel="nofollow">Joël Quenneville</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall" rel="nofollow">Sally Hall</a>.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">GitHub page</a>, or check out <a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">our website</a>.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: <a href="mailto:hosts@bikeshed.fm" rel="nofollow">hosts@bikeshed.fm</a>

This has been a <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">thoughtbot</a> podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a> - <a href="https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">BlueSky</a>

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.<a rel="payment" href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot">Support The Bike Shed</a>

<description>Joël contributes some thoughts on working with custom attributes as he follows up on last week’s discussion about ActiveModels with Sally.
Joël breaks down how he transforms various strings and objects when working with ActiveModels to simplify more advance workloads, as Sally queries their different use cases and how best to utilise them for her own workflow.
—
Catch up on Sally and Aji’s episode from last week on ActiveModels before diving into this discussion! (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com/)
If you’d like to give some of the gems mentioned in this episode a try for yourself they can be found here - phonelib (https://github.com/daddyz/phonelib) - money-rails (https://github.com/RubyMoney/money-rails) - astronoby (https://github.com/rhannequin/astronoby)
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (https://judoscale.com/bikeshed) (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring (https://www.scoutapm.com/).
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/) and Sally Hall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall).
If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot), or check out our website (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com).
Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm
This has been a thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) - Mastodon (https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot) - BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com)
© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.
</description>

Joël contributes some thoughts on working with custom attributes as he follows up on last week’s discussion about ActiveModels with Sally.

487: ActiveModel custom attributes

Aji and Sally join forces to discuss the different ways they utilise active models in their workflows. 

Aji describes a new system for working with active models they’ve been using recently, Sally recalls a project where active models could have saved her a lot of time, before putting their heads together to think of new creative ways to utilise rails’ tools toolset to build other active models.

—

Discover more of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgNb2_LSMMo" rel="nofollow">The Magic of Rails through Eileen Uchitelle’s Keynote</a>, or <a href="https://github.com/thoughtbot/administrate" rel="nofollow">check out the GitHub repo</a> mentioned in this episode. 

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode <a href="https://judoscale.com/bikeshed" rel="nofollow">Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way</a> (check the link for your free gift!), and <a href="https://www.scoutapm.com/" rel="nofollow">Scout Monitoring</a>.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall" rel="nofollow">Sally Hall</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/" rel="nofollow">Aji Slater</a>.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">GitHub page</a>, or check out <a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">our website</a>.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: <a href="mailto:hosts@bikeshed.fm" rel="nofollow">hosts@bikeshed.fm</a>

This has been a <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">thoughtbot</a> podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a> - <a href="https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">BlueSky</a>

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.<a rel="payment" href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot">Support The Bike Shed</a>

<description>Aji and Sally join forces to discuss the different ways they utilise active models in their workflows. 
Aji describes a new system for working with active models they’ve been using recently, Sally recalls a project where active models could have saved her a lot of time, before putting their heads together to think of new creative ways to utilise rails’ tools toolset to build other active models.
—
Discover more of The Magic of Rails through Eileen Uchitelle’s Keynote (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgNb2_LSMMo), or check out the GitHub repo (https://github.com/thoughtbot/administrate) mentioned in this episode. 
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (https://judoscale.com/bikeshed) (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring (https://www.scoutapm.com/).
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Sally Hall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall) and Aji Slater (https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/).
If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot), or check out our website (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com).
Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm
This has been a thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) - Mastodon (https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot) - BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com)
© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.
</description>

Aji and Sally join forces to discuss the different ways they utilise active models in their workflows. 

486: ActiveModel Everywhere

Joël and Aji kick oﬀ a new season by discussing the best use cases for HTTP basic auth and talking all things security.

The pair ask when and why you would use basic auth over standard HTTPS, it’s pros, cons and vulnerabilities over other forms of security, and provide some advice to help decide on what form of security you could implement on your site. 

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode <a href="https://judoscale.com/bikeshed" rel="nofollow">Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way</a> (check the link for your free gift!), and <a href="https://www.scoutapm.com/" rel="nofollow">Scout Monitoring</a>.

Check out these links for more information on some of the topics covered in today’s episode - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing - Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) - The Universe is Hostile to Computers

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/" rel="nofollow">Joël Quenneville</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/" rel="nofollow">Aji Slater</a>.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">GitHub page</a>, or check out <a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">our website</a>.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: <a href="mailto:hosts@bikeshed.fm" rel="nofollow">hosts@bikeshed.fm</a>

This has been a <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">thoughtbot</a> podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a> - <a href="https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">BlueSky</a>

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.<a rel="payment" href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot">Support The Bike Shed</a>

<description>Joël and Aji kick oﬀ a new season by discussing the best use cases for HTTP basic auth and talking all things security.
The pair ask when and why you would use basic auth over standard HTTPS, it’s pros, cons and vulnerabilities over other forms of security, and provide some advice to help decide on what form of security you could implement on your site. 
—
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (https://judoscale.com/bikeshed) (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring (https://www.scoutapm.com/).
Check out these links for more information on some of the topics covered in today’s episode - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing - Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) - The Universe is Hostile to Computers
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/) and Aji Slater (https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/).
If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot), or check out our website (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com).
Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm
This has been a thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) - Mastodon (https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot) - BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com)
© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.
</description>

Joël and Aji kick oﬀ a new season by discussing the best use cases for HTTP basic auth and talking all things security.

485: HTTP Basic Auth

Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1. 

Sally covers her time working with React over the last few months and the challenges it still presents to her workflow, Joël goes back over typescripts and the benefits he’s found when debugging, and the cast reflect on the first season as a whole, what they liked, what went well and what they’d like to improve on for season 2. 

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode <a href="https://judoscale.com/bikeshed" rel="nofollow">Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way</a> (check the link for your free gift!), and <a href="https://www.scoutapm.com/" rel="nofollow">Scout Monitoring</a>.

You can read up on some of the topics mentioned in this episode here - <a href="https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/constructive/" rel="nofollow">Constructive vs Predictive Data</a> - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-lqK2SR8vk" rel="nofollow">Aji’s Keynote</a> - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbqJzACF-54" rel="nofollow">Aji’s Recommended Keynote from 2022</a>

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/" rel="nofollow">Joël Quenneville</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall" rel="nofollow">Sally Hall</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/" rel="nofollow">Aji Slater</a>

If you would like to support the show, head over to our <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">GitHub page</a>, or check out <a href="https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">our website</a>.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: <a href="mailto:hosts@bikeshed.fm" rel="nofollow">hosts@bikeshed.fm</a>

This has been a <a href="https://thoughtbot.com/" rel="nofollow">thoughtbot</a> podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a> - <a href="https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot" rel="nofollow">Mastodon</a> - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com" rel="nofollow">BlueSky</a>

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.<a rel="payment" href="https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot">Support The Bike Shed</a>

<description>Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1. 
Sally covers her time working with React over the last few months and the challenges it still presents to her workflow, Joël goes back over typescripts and the benefits he’s found when debugging, and the cast reflect on the first season as a whole, what they liked, what went well and what they’d like to improve on for season 2. 
—
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (https://judoscale.com/bikeshed) (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring (https://www.scoutapm.com/).
You can read up on some of the topics mentioned in this episode here - Constructive vs Predictive Data (https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/constructive/) - Aji’s Keynote (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-lqK2SR8vk) - Aji’s Recommended Keynote from 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbqJzACF-54)
Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-quenneville-96b18b58/), Sally Hall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyannahall) and Aji Slater (https://www.linkedin.com/in/doodlingdev/)
If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page (https://github.com/sponsors/thoughtbot), or check out our website (https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com).
Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm
This has been a thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) podcast. 
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@thoughtbot/streams) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/) - Mastodon (https://thoughtbot.social/@thoughtbot) - BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/thoughtbot.com)
© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.
</description>

Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1.  

484: The Season 1 Recap

On The Bike Shed, hosts Joël Quenneville, Sally Hall, and Aji Slater discuss development experiences and challenges at thoughtbot with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and whatever else is drawing their attention, admiration, or ire this week.


The Bike Shed

Details

Recent Episodes