Monthly Archives: July 2026
Pairing with AI #1: brainstorming
ℹ️ Update August 23, 2026: I wrote this post a month ago, which is a long time in the AI coding world, and I have an updated recommendation: always use the grilling (or grill-with-docs) skill instead of brainstorm. Matt Pocock has recently updated grilling. I compared it head-to-head with the Superpowers brainstorm using a few different kinds of initial prompts, and consistently got a more thorough interview from grilling.
Typically the first step in my Claude Code assisted workflow is getting a rough idea ready for planning. Not the plan itself, but brainstorming any aspects I haven’t thought through yet, or identifying possible gaps. Popular skills for this are grilling and grill-with-docs from Matt Pocock’s “AI Hero” skills and brainstorming from the Superpowers skills. I’ve worked with both and they each are suited to different needs:
RailsConf 2018 highlights
I drafted this post after RailsConf in 2018, and very belatedly realized I never published it. So I’m finally getting around to it 😉. Reviewing it now, 8 years later, I’m pleasantly surprised at how relevant most of the talks still are.
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- Night view from the Carson bridge in Pittsburg
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- View from the Rachel Carson bridge in Pittsburg
Below are my favorite talks that I attended at RailsConf 2018. Since there were multiple tracks, there were plenty of talks I didn’t have the opportunity to see. For highlights shared by others, check out RailsConf 2018 – Top 10 Favorite Talks (from Al Tenhundfeld), Our Favorite Ruby on Rails Talks from RailsConf 2018 (Planet Argon), and Five things I learned at RailsConf 2018 (Stephen Giles). There’s also a full playlist of the RailsConf 2018 talks if you might to see even more.
This was my first time in Pittsburg, so I took some time out to walk around and see some of the city, so there are more pictures below too.