> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://makemeacto.cc/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Be a loser - URL: https://makemeacto.cc/be-a-loser/ - Published: 2026-10-21T05:00:07.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T05:00:07.000Z - Description: DHH's keynote at Rails World 2026 ended with a warning for all software engineers "Don't be a loser". Here's a warning about listening to people like him without turning on your brain. - Author: Sergio Visinoni - Tags: AI, Leadership, #showfeature I think by now very few of you will have missed the [controversial keynote session DHH delivered at the Rails World 2026 conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDjW%5FdRyKXY&ref=makemeacto.cc). Don't worry, I'm not here to remind you that DHH is a shameless fascist.[1](#footnote-1) That he uses keynote speeches as if they were sponsored talks.[2](#footnote-2) That he seemingly forgot that he was talking at a Rails conference.[3](#footnote-3) Or that he bragged about writing a lot of code in 2026 while at the same time bragging about not writing any single line of code.[4](#footnote-4) None of that. I'll instead focus on a few key flaws in his apparatus of (poor) arguments and the language he used to construct them (if anything was actually constructed by him, but more on that later). And I'll start with a seemingly unrelated angle. DHH, when he's not promoting himself on a stage, is also a rather successful car racer. ## Is racing cars an efficient means of transportation? The core assumption in DHH speech is that writing code is fundamentally and exclusively an economical activity. You write code to build stuff that accrues economic value. It's a very utilitarianist view of the discipline and a quite depressing one. Which is surprising for someone who used to tell everyone how passionate they were about the craft of writing good code. His argument can be boiled down to a simple statement: *I used to be passionate about writing code, but now that machines can do that faster than me, I'm no longer interested.*[5](#footnote-5) Unsettling, isn't it? But let's go back to DHH's favourite offline activity: racing cars. And let's apply the same economic-utilitarian perspective on it. From that angle, racing cars on a circuit makes absolutely no sense. You spend a lot of time and insane amounts of energy to go from point A to... point A. **Yes, you arrive exactly where you left off, a few minutes or hours later.** Of all the possible ways to achieve that result, it seems to me that only a *loser*[6](#footnote-6) would choose racing multiple laps at insane speed as a means to get there. The most reasonable person would simply stay in point A. The tech-bro version would probably take an Uber to do a single lap while they're posting pro-AI statements on X from the comfort of the back seat. Some of you might already be screaming from your chairs, arguing that the purpose of racing cars is not to be an effective means of transportation for people of good. Or rather, that driving cars can serve many different purposes: utilitarian, aesthetic, competitive, self-determination through betterment, you name it. And you'd be right. You see, DHH opened his talk by reminding us about how photography apparently replaced painters. Except that he focused on a specific type of painting: portraits. He, deliberately or not, completely forgot about all other forms of painting that existed before the invention of photography and continued to exist. Furthermore, while he seemed to imply that the advent of AI-assisted coding will replace all forms of humanly written code by using the unfortunate painting analogy, he didn't seem to realise that very few painters decided to become photographers as a consequence of the technical transformation. If anything, many painters felt "liberated", as they could focus even more on the artistic dimension of painting and less on the purely mechanical and utilitarian dimensions. Someone who races cars in the age of Uber is not a loser. A painter who doesn't give up the brush for a camera is not a loser. So, why would a programmer/developer/software engineer who keeps writing their own code be treated as one? DHH doesn't offer any compelling argument besides the usual and weak *because I said so*. But let's move on to another flaw: the pretended counter-arguments. ## Shallow counterarguments (p-doomerism) At some point towards the end of the speech, DHH mentioned that there are some reasonable concerns with this technology. I was almost pleased when he showed a picture of a nuclear plant. That didn't last long. The nuclear plant was a parallel, not a warning. The only counterarguments to GenAI adoption that DHH mentioned were nothing other than the set of escathological tropes used by the TESCREAL folks: the existential risk for humanity represented by a self-improving superintelligence. Something that doesn't exist and is only possible in the mind of some weird futurists. While he mentioned the ridiculous *doomerist* predictions, for which he used nuclear energy as a parallel, he forgot to mention all the harms that the race to AI buildup is **causing to real humans today**. No mention of the impacts on the environment, the looming financial bubble, the cost inflation for hardware components, mounting workplace anxiety and distress, skill atrophy, or how the internet has become a scrapyard of single-use slop. He didn't mention how *reinforcement learning from human feedback*, or RLHF, relies on exploiting low-wage gig workers in Kenya, Venezuela or other devastated countries. If you want to educate yourself on such harms, I do recommend starting with the egregious *Empire of AI* by Karen Hao. I covered it last February, in case you want a bit more context before committing to a great read. [📚 Books I read in February 2026Another case of a tight race between two books for the highlight spot, and some good old sci-fi to complete last month’s trio.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/icon/Icon-Substack-dfe3e147-f762-4c05-8ecd-899baee40932.png)Sudo Make Me a CTOSergio Visinoni![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fsubstack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fada7455e-46ae-45ff-934d-22e45098d7f4_3024x4032-jpeg-d8967eb2-143e-4312-b5e4-e4c8c5485887.jpg)](https://makemeacto.cc/books-i-read-in-february-2026/) **The p-bloom vs p-doom is a false dichotomy.** They are just the two faces of the same coin. A coin made of pure speculations and sci-fi-infused beliefs. They're a convenient distraction, though, as they allow us to close our eyes on the real, proven, material harms that are being inflicted on humans today. It looks as if DHH and his fellow tech bros are completely fine with those harms as long as they don't personally have to deal with them. Don't just take my words for it. Sudo Make Me a CTO is a reader-supported newsletter. If you enjoy the content and would like to see more of it in the future, please consider upgrading to a paid tier. Thanks in advance! [Upgrade to Paid ](#/portal/account/plans) ## Happy to use Rust (as long as I don't personally have to deal with it) While shamelessly revealing to a shocked Rails community that he (or rather Claude Code) had been rewriting large chunks of the Hey stack from Ruby to Rust, DHH came up with a line that I'm sure he was very proud of. You know, DHH has long criticised Rust because in his own words it's an *ugly* language. Those are subjective remarks. I do appreciate that he might find ugly something that others believe is beautiful, or vice-versa. Cultural norms and aesthetic canons aren't universal. I know how hard it might be to accept that if you're a tech-bro white supremacist, but that doesn't make it less true. DHH has all the rights to claim a language is pretty, ugly, elegant or disgusting. The problem with such declarations, though, is that they'll invite scrutiny. People will expect you to behave consistently with your words, as your entire credibility relies on your actions following your words. I believe this is something even he understands. That's why, if he wanted to save his face at least with some of the Rails community, he had to come up with arguments that made him look smart while dodging any potential accusation of treachery. Any normal, without a hypertrophic ego, would have simply recognised they'd been wrong the entire time. They would have said something along the lines of, 'I've always hated this language, and my aesthetic appreciations of it made me blind to its core advantages. After experiencing them in the past few months I realised I had made a mistake.' But that would require intellectual honesty and humility. It would require you to accept the idea of ever being wrong. To the best of my knowledge, DHH doesn't seem to be a champion at racing *that* car. So, instead, he came up with the perfect smart-ass grifter argument. You see, I still dislike Rust, and I would never touch it. In fact, I'm not. I let my digital butler (slave) take care of the dirty job, while I reap all the benefits and credits. I'm not a traitor because I'm not writing any Rust. Something else is doing it for me. This mediated experience is worth all the benefits in safety and performance I reap. DHH said it clearly in his talk: "I'm perfectly fine with using Rust as long as I don't personally have to deal with it." The problem is that he doesn't seem to realise the implication of such revelation. All of the GenAI castle is built on this same foundation. Everybody is perfectly fine building, selling and promoting AI tools as long as they don't have to personally deal with the consequence: environmental damage and human damage. It's not only them; the same happens to users. AI is the intermediary that hides all the dirty jobs. It does it for you, you only reap the benefits... until we all realise this is the twenty first century edition of the tragedy of the commons. DHH is perfectly fine with increased carbon emissions or human exploitation, as long as he doesn't need to deal with it. But this isn't something new that's specific only to AI. It's the scale of the harm that's significantly bigger today. But the same approach has been at the core of the tech industry ever since one existed. Meta is perfectly fine with causing mental health issues among young teens, as long as they don't personally have to deal with them (their families and friends will). Apple is perfectly fine with exploiting and pushing workers to suicide, as long as they don't have to personally deal with them (Foxconn is). Google is perfectly fine with its technology being used by the Pentagon or the IDF, as long as they don't have to deal with the consequences directly (they're providing *neutral technology*). Flock is perfectly fine with their cameras being abused by rogue law enforcement agents, as long as they don't have to personally deal with the issue (police and the justice system will have to). The list can go on forever. And DHH didn't realise (or maybe he did?) that but bragging about how he's able to reap the benefits of Rust in his latest grift without having to get his hands dirty in the process, he just gave out the industry trick to those among us who were still in denial. DHH doesn't seem to care. In fact, he seems perfectly happy trying to make up with language for what he's unable to achieve with arguments. ## The bully in the classroom (or on stage) I don't know you, but whenever I hear someone saying, "Don't be a loser", I hear a bully. I hear someone who is so desperately out of rational arguments that they need to resort to intimidation. And I don't even need to deconstruct the sentence to make that more evident. There is little to deconstruct, as the sentence is as shallow as it sounds. What's the definition of a loser? In the context of DHH talk, it is basically anyone who doesn't do as he does. You either do what I'm telling you now, or you're "out". Out of what, exactly? The most depressing and disgusting version we've ever had of a tech industry? But I realise that would be reacting to the provocation on the same terms. Instead, there's a ludicrous angle to DHH's punchy closing line. He's long been a proponent of capitalism and free markets. He's been repeating the ultra-libertarian "one dollar, one vote" line ad nauseam. And, in recent years, he seems to have become increasingly totalitarian. To the point that he has been adopting some of the worst Soviet/Stalinian attitudes, possibly without even noticing. Because in essence when DHH says "Don't be a loser", he's saying the following: > *This is the right way of doing your job going forward (i.e. using the stocastic parrot machines to do your job). If you don't get in line and adapt, you'll be inevitably left out of the industry.* This is nothing else but the modern, whitewashed techno-optimist version of the old Stalinian rule: > Do what the Party says, or you'll be goulag'd The only difference is that where one used to be unapologetically autoritarian, the other is pretending to be a cool visionary. The essence is the same: someone goes on a stage telling you what you're supposed to do, and threatening consequences if you don't align. ## Be a loser, if you so wish To both Stalin and to DHH I respond with a resounding "Fuck you!". Because that's how you treat bullies. It's the only language they understand. If you're truly, genuinely convinced, that this is the kind of future worth pursuing. That it's in service of the greater good, and the betterment of humanity, by all means go ahead with it, but please make sure to have reasonable arguments to justify its cost. More importantly, don't try to impose your view on the rest of us by threatening repercussions. If, on the contrary, you feel you're in the *losers* camp, don't let the bullies force you into something you don't want to take part on. Remember what Timothy Snyder says about resisting tyrannies: *"Don't obey in advance"*. [📚 Books I read in January 2026Two great books contended for the highlight of the month, but eventually I had to pick one. Besides those, a couple of fiction books worth reading completed the list for January.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/icon/Icon-Substack-1cf6a243-6467-4bdb-9408-acfc6f6de95f.png)Sudo Make Me a CTOSergio Visinoni![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fsubstack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2f8e68184a-3632-4244-a8ad-8bbefa7336be_3024x4032-jpeg-bb1b593e-a7cb-4c42-9a5c-e84093dcbfe4.jpg)](https://makemeacto.cc/books-i-read-in-january-2026/) You are not alone. And you don't need to align with the majority view to feel you have the right to pursue your trade. If you're providing services or products that support human excellence and craftsmanship, please get in tough as I'd like to be able to promote your work. I've recently published an excellent article by Iris Meredith who's building Arca, a way to make you a better software engineer. [The liberal arts of techToday we’re honoured to welcome a guest post by Iris Meredith, a fellow engineer, writer, and passionate about learning across a broad spectrum of topics.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/icon/Icon-Substack-de4a7a43-71ea-4d1a-84f7-4501b3918153.png)Sudo Make Me a CTOIris Meredith![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/thumbnail/chris-boland-1P_bekBuyPY-unsplash-a1f4a517-2780-496f-b9c9-1fdbb5db24d3.jpg)](https://makemeacto.cc/the-liberal-arts-of-tech/) I'm increasingly investing my time in getting better at Rust, even though I know machines can do that faster than me. I've tried that route with Rushomon, and the mixed results still hold. [Building and launching a product in one month. Worth it?How a minor itch led me down the rabbit hole of building and launching a product in an unsexy space. How I turned that into an experiment and my first observations on the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/icon/Icon-Substack-10ecd9c3-74b9-47fc-ba4a-8c6723a0d63a.png)Sudo Make Me a CTOSergio Visinoni![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d3/84/d3840377-8f34-47dc-83e5-6425ca34f9cb/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fsubstack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2f2effbed2-6df6-4c96-a20e-7ad258c2535e_1920x2375-png-e2b99453-d2c5-4516-af25-9181be911090.jpg)](https://makemeacto.cc/building-and-launching-a-product/) If you're also interested in becoming a better software engineer than you're today, and want to help supporting the newsletter, I recommend you check out [Codecrafters](https://app.codecrafters.io/join?via=piffio&ref=makemeacto.cc). By using [this link](https://app.codecrafters.io/join?via=piffio&ref=makemeacto.cc) you can get 40% off the paid plan when you upgrade, and you'll be helping the newsletter. I've recently completed the Shell challenge, and by the time this post goes out I should be close to finish the Git challenge. I've made it to rank #375 in the Rust leaderboard, but more importantly I'm honing my skills and finding a lot of enjoyment in the process. Learning is what makes you truly free, not delegating some mundane tasks to a machine. Oh, and BTW: I'm perfectly fine with DHH getting more involved with Rust, as long as none of us have to personally deal with him. See you next week! ## Sign up for Sudo Make Me a CTO Opinionated insights and tips for leaders in technology, from a former CTO turned consultant, author and luddite. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. --- 1. You might or might not agree with the statement, I don't care. But then make sure to read up some of the most obviously fascist and racist posts by DHH and judge for yourself. Or read what other people have written on the topic, such as [The DHH Problem](https://davidcel.is/articles/the-dhh-problem?ref=makemeacto.cc).[↩](#footnote-anchor-1 "Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.") 2. During the talk he managed to promote *Basecamp*, *Hey*, *Rework* (his book), *Omarchy* and even his latest creation, a vibe coded calculator for fuck's sake![↩](#footnote-anchor-2 "Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.") 3. During the keynote he talked about anything but Rails or Ruby. In fact, he spent more time talking about Rust, a language he openly despise, but with some interesting characteristics he seems to have discovered recently.[↩](#footnote-anchor-3 "Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.") 4. This one was particularly confusing during the entire talk. DHH was constantly shifting the narrative from bragging about the insane amount of code *he* had written during the year, and how he didn't write a single line of code. Quite erratic if you ask me.[↩](#footnote-anchor-4 "Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.") 5. If that sounds like a loser attitude, it's because it might be. Giving up your passion because someone or something can do it faster than you?[↩](#footnote-anchor-5 "Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.") 6. Let's make it clear that I hate that term, and we'll get back to why later. I'm using it in quotes as I'm in fact quoting DHH's own use of the same term.[↩](#footnote-anchor-6 "Jump back to footnote 6 in the text.")