# "How to build a blog in 15 minutes with Rails" (DHH, 2005)

> The demo that launched Rails, and a generation of Ruby programmers.

In 2005, [David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)](https://chunkybacon.dev/people/dhh.md) built a working blog application in about fifteen minutes in a now-legendary demo, performed live on stage in Brazil and circulated far and wide afterward. At a time when web development was slow and ceremonial, watching a database-backed app appear that fast was genuinely startling, and the framing "look at all the things I'm *not* doing" captured the whole pitch. It pulled a generation of programmers toward Ruby. It is a historical artifact now, but still worth [watching](https://x.com/dhh/status/1797398583890809142) to feel the moment Rails clicked for the world.

*Related:* [Rails was pulled out of Basecamp](https://chunkybacon.dev/stories/rails-from-basecamp.md) · [Convention over Configuration](https://chunkybacon.dev/glossary/convention-over-configuration.md)

## Sources
- The original 2005 "blog in 15 minutes" demo (DHH re-share): https://x.com/dhh/status/1797398583890809142
- Hacker News retrospective on the demo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29602758

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Source: https://chunkybacon.dev/talks/fifteen-minute-blog/
License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)