After 13 years away, developer returns to building applications with Ruby on Rails, creating setlist.rocks for his band. Despite declining popularity rankings in the Stack Overflow survey, the author found renewed joy in Rails' expressiveness and the way it aligns with his thinking process. The experience contrasted with modern JavaScript frameworks he typically fights against.

Rails 8 surprised the developer with its evolution while maintaining familiar conventions. The "no build" approach using Hotwire technologies—Stimulus and Turbo—allowed building interactive applications with minimal JavaScript. This modernized server-rendered approach provided Single Page App-like functionality without the complexity of modern frontend tooling.

The author's infrastructure background made Rails' return particularly satisfying. ActiveSupport methods like `3.days.from_now` demonstrated continued elegance, while the ability to quickly scaffold applications proved valuable for his side project. Rails 8 offers a middle path between server-rendered simplicity and modern frontend interactivity, appealing to developers seeking productivity over chasing trends.