I’m Glad I Started Coding in the Mid-2000s

Back then, the web felt different. Smaller, simpler — and a lot more magical.

It was just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you were ambitious, you’d sprinkle in some PHP. We built sites with the LAMP stack, uploaded them via FTP, and watched them go live — no build steps, no Docker, no CI/CD. Just you and your text editor, making something out of nothing.

That’s what drew me in: the ability to create and share. Pure creation, straight from your head to the browser.

I learned the way most of us did back then — books, “View Source”, and trial and error. Once the internet got faster, online resources opened up. And when I found RailsCasts… that was it. Instant level-up. Huge thanks to Ryan Bates for making Rails feel so accessible.

My First Project: Pink Elephant

My first real project was an art portal called Pink Elephant. It attracted a small community, especially around poetry. We even had offline meetups. The people were fascinating — bohemian, creative, full of life.

That site didn’t just teach me how to code — it shaped a part of who I was. Through it, I lived a little more freely. I’m still grateful for that.

Then Rails Changed Everything

Around 2010, I asked a friend which PHP framework I should learn next.

He looked at me and said:
“Learn Ruby on Rails.”

Bold move. But I don’t regret it. I fell in love instantly.

Ruby was elegant. Rails had scaffolds — you could generate something real, then just tweak and evolve it. It reminded me of the early days, saving HTML files and modifying them until they looked like your own.

But the real game-changer? Speed of development. We were shipping apps fast. Clients were happy. And we were getting paid well.

The Good Kind of Simple

Looking back, the simplicity of that time was just right.
No SPAs. No microservices.
Mostly CRUD apps. Not too simple, not too hard.

It still required learning and effort — but it wasn’t overwhelming. You could hold the whole system in your head.

Tools like CoffeeScript (RIP) made things fun. Rails communities were buzzing — smart, creative people pushing the web forward. That influence is still felt today, even if some tools didn’t survive.

“No Overengineering”

When I say there was “no overengineering,” here’s what I mean:

  • Fewer moving parts
  • Simpler projects
  • Simpler requirements
  • Sites were faster
  • Infrastructure was cheap

I’m not convinced everything added to the stack since 2015 has actually made things better.

These days, I see developers reach for SPAs even when they don’t need to. A simple CRUD app suddenly becomes a frontend/backend split, with duplicated logic and double the effort.

And the worst part?
They’re copying tech giants.

“You’re not Google.”
Google built their stack to solve Google problems. You should solve yours.

Do I Miss It?

Yes, I do.

The community felt stronger back then.
More people were building for the love of it — not just for money or clout.

The web felt lighter, faster, and more human.

And honestly?
We shipped more.