I met Noah at my first Ruby conference. I didn't know anyone, but he was very friendly and didn't seem to mind that I tagged along with him between sessions for

I met Noah at my first Ruby conference. I didn't know anyone, but he was very friendly and didn't seem to mind that I tagged along with him between sessions for a few hours. I thought he was just a nice guy; it wasn't until he took the stage and started presenting benchmark methodology that I realized how valuable his technical work was for the community, too.