David Geary has moved into the Rails café and is now spending a considerable amount of time telling others about this place. Most recently, he did just that again at the No Fluff, Just Stuff symposium in Salt Lake City. His presentation left more than a few jaws hanging:

Near the end of that demo, I looked into the audience and saw something that I’d never seen at a NFJS symposium: a woman sitting at a table near the front of the room was looking at me with her mouth wide open and the most incredulous look on her face. It was almost like I could read her mind: “This can’t be real!”, she must’ve been thinking. I pointed at her and said “That’s pretty amazing, huh?” She nodded a reply, but the look of astonishment never left her face.

The language and environment you choose to work with those make a large difference on productivity. Smart people can succeed with nearly anything, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t look for that edge whenever they can find it.