agreed. i find it odd that node and php are called out as the easy way to get into backend. ruby seems more intuitive and friendly than either javascript or php

agreed. i find it odd that node and php are called out as the easy way to get into backend. ruby seems more intuitive and friendly than either javascript or php (not so much that they're hard, but they have more non-intuitive quirks and weirdnesses). i like rails a lot, but i can somewhat sympathize with the view that the magic underlying it might hinder learning for a beginner. but having learned other languages/frameworks first, rails seemed much cleaner (and welcome) in comparison.