Adopting Elixir

When Things Go Wrong

You’ve built your first prototype and your new leaders are starting to, well, lead. It may seem like a feedback loop that’s just too suspiciously positive. Don’t worry. Things will eventually break. Expect periods of success followed by frustration. At some point, your team will stall on your learning curve, and how you address that challenge will make or break your adoption.

Keep in mind how much you’re asking your developers to learn. The old languages don’t work as well anymore precisely because they are missing core concepts your new systems need. Functional programming, concurrency, and distribution are all demanding disciplines. Learning them won’t happen overnight. If you expect some pushback from your team and yourself, ...