I read your first paragraph... but then I read the rest of what you said. Having read the whole comment, I'd say that is spot on. I knew some SQL, but didn't

I read your first paragraph... but then I read the rest of what you said. Having read the whole comment, I'd say that is spot on. I knew some SQL, but didn't start with Active Record. We used SQL client libraries to connect to our SQL database, which didn't have a Rails app built onto it until well into my second year. I did all of that, except for the implementing ActiveRecord and the meta-programming. So I didn't really do any of that. We didn't have a production Rails app until it was clear that I was gaining proficiency, and I'd be sticking around long enough to get a handle on how to manage it. (I didn't write most of it. And we avoided metaprogramming pretty much at all costs.) We had a production Microsoft Access app (no really, VBS in Access 2000), with a MySQL server on the backend, along with tons of perl, bash, and ruby to glue the important parts together. There was a Java app that handled the web side of things. I don't think I'll ever work in a place like that again! But it was the path I took, and now I work on pretty much exclusively Rails.