Rails has opinions about how we should organize code, interact with a database, write tests, format URLs... just about everything. These conventions, the wisdom goes, free us up to focus on the specifics of our application. "Convention over configuration" becomes our mantra as development hurtles forward with startling speed.

At some point, we stop. We take stock of what we've built, and it's a mess. How did we get here?

Turns out, the decisions that Rails made for us had consequences.

Ernie's been writing code since he was 6 years old, but only getting paid to do so for the past 16 years or so. Sometimes he still can't believe people actually pay us to have this much fun.