The first morning of Blue Ridge Ruby , John Athayde stood at the front of the YMI Cultural Center and showed us pictures of trees. Forests. His own land. The projector at the venue was so good that the photos felt like windows. His talk, Learning from Permaculture: Sustainable Software Development , used permaculture principles to talk about how we tend our codebases. I came in expecting a Ruby conference. I didn't expect to spend the morning thinking about how a forest grows itself, and how the same patterns might apply to the systems I work on every day. He also pointed us toward Chad Fowler's The Phoenix Architecture, , which is now next on my reading list. That was the first talk. Once the first talk happens, the conference has actually started. A small conference, in the best way Blue Ridge Ruby is a regional conference in Asheville, North Carolina. About 100 attendees this year, held at the YMI Cultural Center on South Market Street. The size matters. I had time to talk with almost everyone.…