Avdi Grimm writes about Ruby, programming practice, and software careers, including posts on passion and trying Smalltalk.
Commenters recommend his 'Passion Gospel' post and his Pharo Smalltalk-for-Rubyists post, and cite his Ruby tips and experience returning to old projects.
> The colorful Playskool environment
That was likely Squeak, not Pharo. Pharo has muted a lot of the UI colours to be more appropriate for a business environment.
> How anyone could possibly be productive in such an environment. What is it that's so attractive about it to Smalltalkers?
Perhaps its useful to get some outsiders perspectives....
Avdi Grimm has written a few books about Ruby. He records his experience trying Pharo in "I make you hate Ruby in 7 minutes"
http://www.virtuouscode.com/2015/05/11/in-which-i-make-you-hate-ruby-in-7-minutes/
Noel Rappin has written a few books about Ruby & Javascript. He provides an introduction to Smalltalk in "MountainWest RubyConf 2014 - But Really, You Should Learn Smalltalk"
http://youtu.be/eGaKZBr0ga4
There is a good presentation for Ruby devs, showing how Smalltalk used to be.
"7 minutes of Pharo Smalltalk for Rubyists"
http://www.virtuouscode.com/2015/05/11/in-which-i-make-you-hate-ruby-in-7-minutes/
Here is a nice Pharo TDD video (thx Avi) from an author of several Ruby books, when he was trying Pharo...
http://www.virtuouscode.com/2015/05/11/in-which-i-make-you-hate-ruby-in-7-minutes/
There's a difference between caring about your job and being passionate. I recommend reading Avdi Grimm's http://www.virtuouscode.com/2014/02/10/the-passion-gospel/, it's really good.
I don't know why you're being voted down.. even Avdi Grimm supports that:
http://www.virtuouscode.com/2015/08/11/what-its-like-to-come-back-to-a-ruby-project-after-6-months/
Here’s when you’d use them
http://www.virtuouscode.com/2014/08/26/how-to-use-rubys-english-andor-operators-without-going-nuts/