Top all-time · #139
thoughtbot
Company blog · robots.thoughtbot.com/blogprogrammingweb
thoughtbot is the company blog at robots.thoughtbot.com, writing about programming and web. Since 2009, 300 different Hacker News readers have linked it 574 times, most often “How We Replaced React with Phoenix”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
Linked for short, practical posts on git, vim, tmux, Ruby, testing and dotfiles. One commenter calls it a really good blog with small one-off tips on vim, the command line and Ruby.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Articles from thoughtbot about product design, web development, mobile development, and growth.
Most-linked posts?
- How We Replaced React with Phoenix10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2016-07-12
- Lucky, an experimental new web framework by thoughtbot5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-10-27
- Arduino-Based Bathroom Occupancy Detector5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2014-01-08
- The vim learning curve is a myth3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-11-23
- A tmux crash course (2016)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-10-25
- Auto-squashing Git Commits3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-06-15
- Announcing: Our Online Learning Platform Upcase Is Now Free3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-18
- Announcing pick: a fuzzy search tool for the command-line3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-03-10
- FactoryGirl renamed to FactoryBot3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-10-26
- PSA: Do not use system Ruby3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-06-30
What Hacker News says?
A few tips! 1. Always use the "upstream" branch as your rebase target - "git rebase -i master", or " git rebase -i origin/master". This is almost always what you want, and picking the wrong base is the most common error I've seen when teaching people rebase -i 2. Use autosquash! https://robots.thoughtbot.com/autosquashing-git-commits . If you have trouble with the text-editor interface you get when you run rebase -i…
Comment linking /autosquashing-git-commits
on “Squash your commits”Submitted Replace CoffeeScript with ES6 as a story · 351 points
HN discussionI do trips like this every few years. I can hardly recommend them enough. I wrote about my specific recommendations here: https://robots.thoughtbot.com/you-should-take-a-codecation .
Comment linking /you-should-take-a-codecation
on “A week-long programming retreat”Submitted Shutting down a product? Open source it. as a story · 257 points
HN discussionI disagree. I and others (such as Thoughtbot) often start by writing integration tests first. It’s known as outside-in testing. TDD by started by with low level tests is just backwards. Outside-in helps you clarify the design from the perspective of the user. https://robots.thoughtbot.com/testing-from-the-outsidein
Comment linking /testing-from-the-outsidein
on “TDD did not live up to expectations”Submitted Tell, don't ask as a story · 216 points
HN discussionThe original study fell short on rigor and the author posted an updated version here - https://robots.thoughtbot.com/examining-performance-differen...
Comment linking /examining-performance-differences-between-native-flutter-and-react-native-mobile-development-take-two
on “Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0”Submitted Vim, you complete me as a story · 193 points
HN discussionsomeone did a performance test on android react vs flutter vs native app see https://robots.thoughtbot.com/examining-performance-differen...
Comment linking /examining-performance-differences-between-native-flutter-and-react-native-mobile-development
on “Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0”Submitted How grep got its name as a story · 186 points
HN discussionThis looks very cool - thank you. I've been using Pick by Thoughtbot [1] for the same purpose, but if I understand correctly fpp will automatically extract file paths from any command without me needing to chain in awk/grep ? [1] https://robots.thoughtbot.com/announcing-pick
Comment linking /announcing-pick
on “Facebook PathPicker”Submitted This is CoffeeScript as a story · 184 points
HN discussionI've never come across a single Ruby tutorial or talk or anything that suggests using system Ruby. For many good reasons. https://robots.thoughtbot.com/psa-do-not-use-system-ruby
Comment linking /psa-do-not-use-system-ruby
on “React Tutorial: Cloning Yelp”Submitted A Tmux Crash Course (2011) as a story · 177 points
HN discussionIf you were trying to learn Rails (which this story ostensibly is doing with React) you wouldn't have Ruby installed. (or you'd be using system Ruby, which you generally shouldn't use: https://robots.thoughtbot.com/psa-do-not-use-system-ruby )
Comment linking /psa-do-not-use-system-ruby
on “React Tutorial: Cloning Yelp”Submitted Is Your Site Leaking Password Reset Links? as a story · 174 points
HN discussion> You wrote specific words (I've quoted them) that denote things that I know to be false. You admitted both the influence on you of CoffeeScript (e.g. fat arrow) and also that the Dart SIMD standard guy did the ES7 SIMD standard. Thus at minimum both CoffeeScript and Dart have influenced directly what has ended up in future versions of JavaScript via the JavaScript standards people. So that original claim of mine is…
Comment linking /replace-coffeescript-with-es6
on ““We have decided not to integrate the Dart VM into Chrome””Submitted Thinking in Types as a story · 168 points
HN discussionTo anyone reading, bitkeeper does nothing special in this regard. Enforce commit message standards, plenty of platforms and systems built around git (and literally every other SCM) have support for this. Here's what he's taking about: http://www.bitkeeper.org/man/citool.html and http://www.bitkeeper.org/man/templates.html Here is git's analogous feature: https://robots.thoughtbot.com/better-commit-messages-with-a-..…
Comment linking /better-commit-messages-with-a-gitmessage-template
on “Why SQLite Does Not Use Git”Submitted Vim Splits – Move Faster and More Naturally as a story · 139 points
HN discussionthoughtbot | Web Developer | Austin, Boston, New York City, Raleigh, San Francisco | https://thoughtbot.com/jobs thoughtbot | Designer | Boston, New York City, Raleigh | https://thoughtbot.com/jobs thoughtbot | Design Director | London | https://thoughtbot.com/jobs thoughtbot designers and developers rapidly build high-quality web applications. Well-qualified designers and developers have excellent knowledge of HTML…
Comment linking /investment-time
on “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2017)”Submitted C'mon, stop writing Java for Android as a story · 133 points
HN discussionlook into Brewfile[1] [1]: http://robots.thoughtbot.com/brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-home...
Comment linking /brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-homebrew
on “Hacker's Guide to Setting Up Your Mac”Submitted 2011 Rubyist’s guide to a Mac OS X development environment as a story · 130 points
HN discussionThis is pretty cool. There are some other companies that have released similar tools in the past. I personally tried out: * Thoughtbot's laptop script - http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/8700977975/2011-rubyists-g... * Lunar Logic's Lunar Station - https://github.com/LunarLogicPolska/lunar-station * Pivotal Labs's Pivotal Workstation - https://github.com/pivotal/pivotal_workstation I personally liked Pivotal Worksta…
Comment linking /post/8700977975/2011-rubyists-guide-to-a-mac-os-x-development
on “Introducing Boxen”Submitted Show HN: Administrate – Rails framework for creating flexible admin dashboards as a story · 124 points
HN discussionThoughtbot, in addition to having a really good blog, is at least in the running for one of the best names (Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots). https://robots.thoughtbot.com/ I love it because the articles are often small, one off tips re: vim, the command line, ruby, etc. Really neat stuff.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Which companies have the best blogs written by their engineering team?”Submitted Clearer Conditionals using De Morgan's Laws as a story · 115 points
HN discussionI read from https://robots.thoughtbot.com/ .
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What programming blogs do you follow?”Submitted Announcing gitsh: A dedicated shell for git commands as a story · 95 points
HN discussion
