I spent a year learning Rails. I was not prepared with how much I would struggle

This has nothing to do with Rails.

In general, software is not easy. I think all on HN would know that.

Those who say they had built so-and-so over the weekend or in a week etc, it is great for them. But it sets some unrealistic expectations for the naive and those who are new to software development.

Ironically, Rails was specifically designed to minimize the kinds of problems the article talks about. And they did a heroic job. "Convention over configuration" are words to live by. Probably the single biggest idea in software architecture which was developed since I left high school.

But alas, there is STILL endless amounts of arbitrary, unpredictable stuff--like cr vs cr-lf, which has to be learned.