[2] Mongrel was the first web server used by Twitter, and inspired Node.js, according to its creator Ryan Dahl.

Shaw is the author of learncodethehardway.org, which offers to teach users Python, Ruby, C, Regex, and SQL.

His most famous and well-covered piece was the article "Rails is a Ghetto"[6][7] which has since been removed from his site.

[11] Shaw has spoken about the amounts of vague and misleading information that is pervasive in the startup and entrepreneur culture, particularly concerning self-proclaimed startup advisors or entrepreneurship "gurus", having demonstrated publicly how some notable figures in the industry appear to speak and provide advice from a background of success that they never actually attained.

[12] Shaw is also behind an initiative entitled "Programming, Motherfucker", whose manifesto claims that programmers are "tired of being told we're socially awkward idiots who need to be manipulated to work in a Forced Pair Programming chain gang.