I was shocked to discover last week that Noah Gibbs had passed away.
Memories are being collected for his family here. I thought I would share mine here as well.
“My recollection of Noah is of a kind generous man who contributed tirelessly to the things he believed in.
I first encountered Noah after I gave a conference talk calling for better benchmarks in the Ruby community. At the time I was working on a doomed Ruby JIT compiler.
After that talk, Noah would go on the build Rails Ruby Bench. We corresponded a bit about it, and I started keeping track of his writing on the internet.
Eventually I moved on from Ruby. Still, I kept track of Noah, and would read his writing when I came across it. He clearly was someone who thought deeply about the nature of building software, and what it was to be employed in this industry that demanded production from something that from the inside felt more like craft.
You could see his commitment to community and mentorship in the things he wrote about, the podcasts he took, etc.
Recently I had occasion to reach out to Noah again. My email started “Hey Noah, I don’t know if you remember me” — I was truly gratified that his reply started “Hiya, Matt! Yes, I remember you. :-)” — then he generously answered my questions, fully in the spirit intended.
I had always hoped to run into Noah again, to cross paths with him. I am so incredibly sorry for your loss. I hope this message helps in the tiniest bit to illuminate more of the ways in which Noah touched people, all over the world.
”
Noah had a broad reach, but if anyone reading this has their own recollections, please send them along to his family.