RubyConf 2019 Sketchnotes
Tags: conferences, sketchnotes, ruby
Published: 2019-11-23 16:20:22

---
title: RubyConf 2019 Sketchnotes
published: true
description: Illustrated notes from this year's RubyConf in Nashville!
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/jkl0cocu3how2lnte5gh.png
tags: conferences, sketchnotes, ruby
---

I had a fantastic time this year at [RubyConf](https://rubyconf.org/about) in Nashville! This year, I committed to trying out [_sketchnoting,_](https://www.verbaltovisual.com/what-is-sketchnoting/) or visual note-taking. I had a great time at [Write/Speak/Code](https://www.writespeakcode.com/2019/program/) this past August at [Denise Yu](http://www.deniseyu.io/art)'s excellent workshop "Telling stories with doodles" and have been meaning to experiment ever since!

Other sketchnoters I highly admire:

* [Chiu-Ki Chan](https://twitter.com/chiuki/timelines/580188517080272896)
* [Nitya Narasimhan](https://twitter.com/search?q=(sketchnote)%20(from%3A%40nitya)&src=typed_query&f=live)
* [Amruta Renade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHyht32yysc)

Here's a selection of my notes from the conference:

## Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them
[Keavy McMinn](https://keavy.com/)
Excellent presentation on API development best practices!

![Sketchnote of McMinn's presentation on API development best practices](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/odwa81abglaee8al2zro.JPG)

## ElasticSearch 5 ~~or~~ and Bust!
{% user molly_struve %}

Molly's talk walked us through an ElasticSearch upgrade gone awry - and the recovery process.

![Sketchnote of Struve's presentation on an ElasticSearch upgrade gone awry](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rlemcznk19lolxdofhnk.png)

## OOP in Pictures 
[Ivan Nemytchenko](https://inem.at/)
Nemytchenko's presentation detailed creating and using a visual language to teach OOP concepts -- with robots!

![Sketchnote of Nemytchenko's presentation on creating and using a visual language to teach OOP concepts](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/29q42dd4bihno3ds0dx1.png)

## Ruby & Sentiment Analysis 
[Ben Greenberg](https://twitter.com/RabbiGreenberg)
Ben demonstrated how to use free tools to create an app that tells you the "mood" of the news for the day.

![Sketchnote of Greenberg's demonstration of using free tools to create an app that tells you the mood of the news for the day](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/mpb31onmsws9shq2b74y.png)

## What Happens when a Linguist Learns to Code?
[Erica Sosa](http://erica.tech/)
Erica gave an overview of her journey from linguistics to programming, as well as going over the concepts that language learners in both fields deal with.

![Sketchnote of Sosa's presentation on her journey from linguistics to programming, and the concepts that language learners in both fields deal with](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/w9qz06hrk9mctwopi7r3.png)

## Fixing Performance and Memory Problems
[Frederick Cheung](https://twitter.com/fglc2)
Frederick's talk led us through the process of finding sneaky memory leaks and gave us tools for hunting down the culprits.

![Visual notes for the presentation "Fixing Performance and Memory Problems"](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/3yh90jj791sr32hy6xj6.png)

## Fun, Friendly Computer Science 
[Mercedes Bernard](https://www.mercedesbernard.com/)
Mercedes walked us through several key computer science concepts in an approachable way -- very helpful for interviews!

![Visual notes for the presentation "Fun, Friendly Computer Science"](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7x2yhdpq72dfw3nr4sk2.png)

## Late, Over Budget, and Happy
[Amy Newell](https://twitter.com/amynewell) & [Nat Budin](https://twitter.com/natbudin)
I very much enjoyed Amy and Nat's heartfelt and honest presentation of the lessons they learned during a skunkworks project.

![Visual notes for the presentation "Late, Over Budget, and Happy"](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8yjl7oypc0488hez5jdi.png)

## Lucky You
[Sandi Metz](https://www.sandimetz.com/)
Sandi dropped a _ton_ of data on us for the third day's keynote, reminding us how very _lucky_ we are to be in software - and how the demographic someone is born into is even more important than luck.

![Visual notes for the presentation "Lucky You"](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/w6fl1sj1zt8mrep3gfco.png)