Railscasts was really useful when I was learning Rails, so there's no begrudging Ryan.
But still, part of me has to wonder, how much of this is TextMate Syndrome[1]? By which I mean, how much did Railscasts end up earning?
I was signed up for about a year -- $108. Ignoring those who would pay their personal money, and just considering those who could expense it (a whopping $9 per month!), I have always just assumed (but don't know) than many thousands of others must have subscribed.
Making hundreds of thousands of dollars more than you expected does really make it harder to keep working on some nerd shit, instead of... not doing that.