iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Russ Olsen

Jeroen ✦ 135→ @jeroen.wtf · 27/07/2026

Finally arrived the paperback version of @russolsen.bsky.social's Eloquent Ruby (Second Edition) 🎉 It's time to find out what is this ruby thing I see everywhere at work. This last months I was about to pull the trigger on the digital version but I'm a romantic and really wanted it on paper.

A photo of the Eloquent Ruby (Second Edition) book written by Russ Olsen, on a desk.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

OK, the Pragmatic Bookshelf folks have updated the site to show that Eloquent Ruby, Second Edition is done. If you want to buy a paper version and support your local bookstore instead of a certain tech giant (and you are in the USA) check out the page at bookshop.org: bookshop.org/p/books/eloq...

bookshop.org

Eloquent Ruby

Write better, clearer, more focused Ruby code by becoming truly fluent in the language. As a Ruby programmer, you know how powerful and expressive it is. But do you really know how to make the most of...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

It's here! The paper version of Eloquent Ruby, 2nd edition is available on Amazon! Finally! www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Rub... Remember, you are looking for the *2nd edition*, the one with the orchestra conductor on the cover.

amazon.com

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The Pragmatic Bookshelf ✅ @pragprog.com · 27/05/2026

Eloquent Ruby, 2nd Ed @russolsen.bsky.social pragprog.com/titles/... Programming Clojure, 4th Ed @alexmiller.bsky.social pragprog.com/titles/...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

OK, so the paper version of Eloquent Ruby is off to production. That means it's a couple of months away from making an appearance. It also means I'm done, with a capital "Ahhh." pragprog.com/titles/eruby...

pragprog.com

Eloquent Ruby, Second Edition

Write elegant Ruby code--not just correct, but idiomatic. Go beyond the vocabulary and syntax and learn to express yourself with eloquence.

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The Pragmatic Bookshelf ✅ @pragprog.com · 09/04/2026

Weekly Top 5 on pragprog.com: 1️⃣ Programming Clojure 2ed 2️⃣ Common Sense Guide to AI Eng 3️⃣ Process Over Magic-Beyond Vibe Coding 4️⃣ Eloquent Ruby 2nd Ed 5️⃣ Clojure Brain Teasers - @alexmiller.bsky.social @ramtop.bsky.social @russolsen.bsky.social

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Happy "we finally made it back to the Moon" day!

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

For all you aspiring radio amateurs, I've just released an updated version of my ham radio question pool repo. This repo had all of the questions from the latest version of all three tests in machine readable json, csv and yaml formats. github.com/russolsen/ha...

github.com

GitHub - russolsen/ham_radio_question_pool: All of the current questions for the FCC amateur radio license exams in machine readable format.

All of the current questions for the FCC amateur radio license exams in machine readable format. - russolsen/ham_radio_question_pool

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GOTO Conferences @gotocon.com · 02/04/2026

54 years after Apollo, NASA just launched 4 humans toward the Moon again. 🌕 Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch & Jeremy Hansen are out there RIGHT NOW on Artemis II. Follow the mission & watch how the dream was born: youtu.be/ntmkMLcveC0 cc: @russolsen.bsky.social #Artemis2 #NASA #Apollo

youtu.be

To the Moon • Russ Olsen • GOTO 2024

YouTube video by GOTO Conferences

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

My interview on the @maintainable.fm podcast is up! Among other things, Robby and I talk about how it's not just code rot that makes software hard to maintain over time. A bigger, hidden problem is that the reasoning behind it disappears. But it doesn't have to. maintainable.fm/episodes/rus...

maintainable.fm

Russ Olsen: The Hidden Cost of Forgetting Why the Code Looks Like That

Russ Olsen joins Robby to talk about maintainability, trade-offs, and why so many teams forget to document what they decided not to do. It’s a conversation about legacy systems, rewrites, developer qu...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

OK, today is a good day: Eloquent Ruby Second Edition just went to the copy editor, who will try to mitigate my crimes against the English language. Almost there.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

This is turning out to be a busy week. My chat with Jared Norman on the Dead Code podcast is out! You can find it in all of the usual podcast places. bsky.app/profile/dead...

bsky.app

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

AI hates my writing. The feeling is mutual.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I'm as fond as the next person at laughing at people who make predictions that are wildly off the mark. But every now and then they do get it right. This is from the July, 1985 issue of Unix Review.

Image from an old magazine that reads "Electronic mail has a great potential for causing a megafold multiplication of junk mail."

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

In 1994 a comet hit Jupiter. And we got to see it happen. Originally a single giant dirty snowball, the comet broke up as it screamed in. This picture was taken by a telescope in Hawaii and is in the near-infrared. The line of bright dots at the bottom are where bits of the comet hit.

Redish image of Jupiter on a dark background. There are 5 or 6 bright spots along the bottom of Jupier.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

And it looks like the paperback version of my novel *Overdrive* will be available from Amazon on Dec 24th! Kobo version coming as soon as it gets through the quality checks. www.amazon.com/Overdrive-Li...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

After many false starts and missed dates*, the paperback edition of my novel Overdrive will be ready in the next few days! * It's almost like a software project!

4 copies of the paperback edition of Overdrive

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

For all of you who have purchased the beta copy of Eloquent Ruby, Second Edition, there is an updated version coming soon. The new version includes a ton of corrections and a newly rewritten chapter on Ruby implementations. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, then now's the time eloquentruby.com

eloquentruby.com

Eloquent Ruby, Second Edition

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

This is a navigation photo taken by Voyager 1 as it passed by Io, a moon of Jupiter. Engineer Linda Morabito wondered just what the the heck the round thing on the left was? Another moon behind Io? It turned out to be a 300 km hi plume from the first active volcano ever seen outside of Earth.

Black and white image of the Moon IO with a strange circular shape in the upper left.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

This is the Gemini 7 spaceship, photographed from Gemini 6. There were two people in Gemini 6 and two in Gemini 7, so four people total. At the time (1965) that was the record for most people in space at the same time. Four.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

This is Gene Cernan just back in the ship after walking on the Moon. Notice that he is more or less filthy. I've read a lot of classic (pre Moon landing) sci fi, but I'm not sure anyone predicted that moon dust would be sticky.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

If your current job isn't teaching you something new, or leaving you the time and energy to teach yourself something new, then you are the economic equivalent of an oil well: Valuable until you are exhausted and then worthless. Don't be an oil well.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

There is a story that the novelist Joseph Heller, when informed that some hedge fund manager made more money in one day than Heller's Catch-22 would earn in its whole history replied: “Yes, but I have something he will never have . . . enough.” Today, I am thankful that I have enough.

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Reposted by Russ Olsen

Roland Weisleder @rweisleder.de · 18/11/2024

Spending hours with ChatGPT can save you minutes of reading the documentation.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

This picture gets me every time. This is the Apollo 11 ascent module in the foreground with the Earth in the far distance. There are 2 guys in the ascent module and several billion people on the little blue dot. That's absolutely everyone, except the guy taking the picture.

Apollo 11 ascent module, the moon and the Earth.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

In working on the second edition of Eloquent Ruby, I decided to add a bit of coverage of Sonic-Pi, the wonderful live coding music generation tool built around Ruby. Of course I had to install it again and play around with it. 6 Hours Later Well, not a lot of writing got done today.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

The fine folks at the Pragmatic Press, publishers of both Getting Clojure and the (so far) beta version of Eloquent Ruby (along with many others) are running their annual 50% off sale. So hurry on over and use the coupon code save50 on the checkout page! pragprog.com

pragprog.com

Pragmatic Bookshelf: By Developers, For Developers

We improve the lives of professional developers. We create timely, practical books on classic and cutting-edge topics to help you learn and practice your craft, and accelerate your career. Come learn ...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

In working on the Eloquent Ruby chapter on Ruby implementations, I came across this in wonderful bit of code in the MRI VM. I don't often laugh at a program for a full minute, but I made an exception here. eloquentruby.com

Code for a function called "canary_is_found_dead".

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

The key thing about reality is that it doesn't need a PR staff. Rule of thumb: If a company, particularly a large company, spends a lot of time and money telling its employees that something is true, that is prima faca evidence that it's baloney.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I'm working on the Eloquent Ruby chapter that discusses the various Ruby implementations. Which means that I'm digging into the source code for MRI for the first time in about a decade. I think last time I looked it was version 1.9.something. Now it's 3.4+.

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Noel Rappin @noelrappin.com · 01/11/2025

I am so excited for this book, it's so great!

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Bart de Water @bdewater.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

This was the book that really made me understand idiomatic Ruby looks like early in my career. Looking forward to reading the new edition.

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Reposted by Russ Olsen

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

I don't normally get angry about the media, who are doing a difficult job in a difficult environment. But if you see a story where one scientist says one thing, and literally everyone else says another, and you decide to write it up, well, Jed, I don't even want to know you.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Putting the finishing touches on the beta release of 2nd edition of Eloquent Ruby, which should be available sometime in the next couple of weeks. This has been a long, long journey but the finish line is at least out there on the horizon. I mean, who writes a book with 746 separate code examples?

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

There are things that everyone knows. These are the things that nobody talks about. Which is why not everyone knows what "everyone knows." You know?

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

In other news, the print version of my novel Overdrive is almost ready. And it has a different cover! www.amazon.com/Overdrive-Li...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

The 2nd edition of Eloquent Ruby has a cover!

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Eloquent Ruby update: We are edging towards a beta release, probably early to mid Nov. One. Page. At. A. Time.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Somehow I've lived in this neighborhood for years without noticing just how cool the people down the street are...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

@antiheroine.bsky.social Hey do you have any recommendations for a converter and ink for that LAMY pen you talked me into buying? I'm going thru 2-3 cartridges a week...

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

I've released the framework that I used to create the epub/kindle version of my recent novel, Overdrive, up on github. So if you have ever had the urge to write a novel in markdown, this is your lucky day. github.com/russolsen/bo...

github.com

GitHub - russolsen/book_markdown_template

Contribute to russolsen/book_markdown_template development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Between working on the Eloquent Ruby and the novel Overdrive, I've been struck by how much overlap there is between writing fiction and technical stuff. The one needs to be entertaining, flow from scene to scene and pop up with surprises every now and then. The other is a long made-up story.

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Eloquent Ruby 2nd edition update: Just finished the first draft of the pattern matching chapter. It's a bit like squeezing out that last bit of toothpaste, from the point of view of the tube. But also fun

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Russ Olsen @russolsen.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

I came across an old shirt while cleaning out my closet, had a wave of nostalgia.

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Reposted by Russ Olsen

Tech Talks Weekly @techtalksweekly.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

2/5. "Functional Programming in 40 Minutes • Russ Olsen • GOTO 2024" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 09 Jul 2025 ⸱ youtube.com/watch?v=QujM1S3tP-I @gotocon.com @russolsen.bsky.social

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