For more than a decade, Upcase was where thoughtbot taught Ruby on Rails. You’d work through a trail, get stuck, watch one of us solve the same problem, and come out a little sharper. Thousands of developers used it to take “junior” out of their title.
We don’t say that lightly. In 2018, we transitioned Upcase from a paid subscription product to a free platform, opening the content to the community. Over time, we’ve continued to rethink how we share what we learn.
Today, we believe open platforms like our blog, podcasts The Bike Shed & Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots, live streams and video channels are better suited to keeping our teaching current, accessible, and connected to the pace of change in software development.
Where to learn Ruby on Rails now
If you’re not sure where to start, start with the blog. It works through the real Rails decisions that don’t have a tidy answer in the docs. When you’re ready to go deeper, our books are free to read. Ruby Science is what we reach for when an app starts to sprawl, and Testing Rails is how a lot of us learned to test. The Bike Shed carries Upcase’s conversational side forward every week, and our open source gems are the same ones we use on client work, out in the open for you to read.
Watch us build
More than anything, Upcase was video, and that content now lives on our YouTube channel. You’ll find short clips to watch on a break and longer tutorials for when you want to go deeper on a topic.
The one to start with is AI in Focus, the closest thing to sitting beside a thoughtbot developer as they solve a real problem in real time. Every week, thoughtbot founder, Chad Pytel, and Development Lead, Louis Antonopoulos, explore AI coding in real time, how LLMs integrate into Rails applications and what it takes to turn AI ideas into production-ready software.
Thank you
To everyone who built, contributed to, or learned through Upcase, thank you. You’re what made it meaningful and your curiosity, feedback, and enthusiasm shaped it over the years.
We look forward to the next chapter in sharing what we learn, as we learn it - and we hope you’ll continue to join us on that journey.