For me, it comes up in test cases. In a controlled environment, it can be nice to mentally say "add two objects, the first should be this, the second should be this." I don't think I've ever used `second` outside of the testing realm.

It's the whole philosophy of ruby: sometimes, it makes more sense to write the index in full letters rather than in digits.

I don't know, I'm not a Ruby/Rails guy. I just remember seeing something where DHH talked about this.

I feel the same way about empty parenthesis and line ending semicolons. Lol.