Craig Buchek

Craig has been using Ruby and Rails since 2005. He enjoys writing concise readable code, especially in Ruby. He enjoys a player-coach role, helping teams improve their processes, technical practices, and automation. (He's likely looking for work.)

Giving a conference talk is Craig's way to strike up some conversations. So feel free to go up to him and “talk shop”. If you want to make small talk, ask Craig about traveling, attending concerts, beekeeping, or where he was when the pandemic hit.

Nil - Nothing is Easy, Is It?

Nil is pretty simple — it represents nothing. But that doesn't mean that it's always easy to use, or that it's always the right choice when it appears to be the obvious choice.

We'll cover several anti-patterns in the use of nil. We'll discuss *why* they're problematic, and explore some better alternatives. The refactorings that we'll look at will help to reduce errors and optimize for understanding. Writing good code might take a little longer in the short run, but it pays off in the long run.