survey

What did you do to get good at Rails?
Initially started with the Agile Web Dev with Rails book, used that to build an all-AJAX Twitter app back when Twitter was shiney and new. Demo'd that to work and that rolled into a pilot project using Ruby/Rails to tie a couple of backend APIs together into a reporting app. I decided I loved it all so much that I began some client projects on the side.

Who taught you what you know?
Mostly self-taught ... worked with other techs for many years, so most of the learning was in details of Ruby and the platform rather than "oh this is a model" level. 

Do you have any fond (or not so fond) memories of your learning experiences?
The first time I built AJAX using about 3 lines of code. Coming from PHP and Java this was all previously manual. These days everyone has been inspired by Rails, but it's very easy to forget that at the time it was so far aheadf of the curve it was like magic. 

What was your first production app and what did you learn from it?
Apart from the pilot API business above, my first client project was a seminar management app for an insurance company. Rails made everything easy and the client made everything hard. Lesson: it's probably not about the technology.

What tools do you use to make your life easier?
Selenium, rSpec, Cucumber, Pivotal Tracker, git. 

What did you find particularly hard to grok when learning Rails?
I don't think I ever had a moment like that with Rails - part of the reason I love it so much. 
Ruby's closure mechanism took me a little work because it was so different to Java. 

When did you start on Rails?
Hmm ... 2006 or 2007, I think?

Did you learn Ruby first or try to jump straight into Rails?
I jumped straight into Rails. 

Did you read any books to get good at Rails? 
Agile Dev, The Rails Recipe books. 

What system do you use?
Have an Apple MBP with Mac OS X (obvs) and a Netbook running Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

What editor do you prefer?
Textmate