Now that I re-read what I wrote, it sounds like I am giving a wholesale green flag to Rails. Not so, I also dislike modifying or even extending core classes. It

Now that I re-read what I wrote, it sounds like I am giving a wholesale green flag to Rails. Not so, I also dislike modifying or even extending core classes. It's something I don't like to do at all even on solo work, and the Birthday Paradox you mention has already bitten a friend of mine: http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-04-08/sick.md#readme http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-04-0... So while I was ranting a bit about the process vs. tools issue, I fundamentally agree with your concerns that programming Ruby in the style of Rails has issues.