Elixir Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Re-Platforming One of the Original Dot Coms in Elixir with Angel Jose Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Today’s guest is Angel Jose, a Software Engineer Manager at Cars.com with a passion for product and the customer experience. Angel played a key role in completely re-platforming Cars.com via Elixir, Phoenix, and other open source tooling, and his former adventures in the blockchain space include working with ETH, EOS, and general distributed tooling. In today’s episode, we discuss Cars.com's decision to migrate to an entirely Elixir-based system, rebuilding the data model from scratch, redesigning all of the user interfaces, and what that meant for the team that Angel was tasked with leading, as well as how the Elixir system functions at such incredible scale, with Cars.com receiving more than a million visitors daily! We touch on Angel’s approach to onboarding new engineers, how Elixir impacts this process, and the broader impact Elixir has on the community as a whole, as well as what he hopes to see from the community in the future, so make sure not to miss this awesome conversation about adopting Elixir with Angel Jose!

Key Points From This Episode:

Hot takes, rants, and obsessions: Angel’s best and worst taco experiences.
Why Angel won’t be at ElixirConf 2021 and the story of how he began programming in Elixir.
The process of finding a job in software engineering after completing an online bootcamp.
Angel’s experience of navigating the freedom that comes with being an engineer.
Find out how Angel got involved in re-platforming Cars.com, one of the original dot coms.
Get a glimpse into the make up of the engineering team at Cars.com.
How the pandemic impacted not only Angel’s deadlines but the car industry as a whole.
The ETL pipeline of different data points that makes up Cars.com and Auto.com.
Angel shares his opinion of LiveView and what he has learned about using it at scale.
Advice for those adopting new technology: make sure there are enough resources out there.
Where Angel believes his team would be without Elixir and what they are looking forward to.
Some of the tangible benefits Cars.com has seen from flipping the switch to Elixir.
How Angel approaches onboarding new engineers by providing them with resources and integrating learning into their day-to-day.
The importance of celebrating small wins and fostering feelings of accomplishment.
Angel on how Elixir impacts onboarding and new engineers; more simplicity, less magic.
How Elixir has impacted the programming community and what Angel hopes to see in future.
Taco happy hour, conference food, making the most of each meal, remote work, and more!
What Angel has learned from working remotely, particularly from a social perspective.
Angel shares his dream car after working at Cars.com and moving to Colorado.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Angel Jose on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajose01/
Angel Jose on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ajose01
Cars.com — https://www.cars.com/
Cars.com Careers — https://www.cars.com/careers/
Elixir Conf — https://elixirconf.com/
Elixir Slack — https://elixir-lang.slack.com/
General Assembly — https://generalassemb.ly/
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/

Special Guest: Angel Jose.

The Impact of Elixir Launchisode Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

As we kick off our new, seventh season of the Elixir Wizards podcast, we wanted to introduce our theme of the impact of Elixir by having a simple chat between our panel and foregoing our usual guest format. As fans of podcasts ourselves, we always like to get to know some of the personalities behind the voices, so we decided to take this opportunity to do just that, with Alex, Sundi, and Eric! So to hear a little about what to expect in the coming weeks of the show, what the teams have been up to recently, both professionally and beyond, and to just enjoy a quick hangout with some friendly voices, make sure you tune into this launchisode!

Key Points From This Episode:

What our team has been up to recently: new projects, the apprentice program, and more.
Reflections on this iteration of the apprentice program and differences from 2018.
The recent ElixirConf and how our panel was involved in the event.
Inside information that is shared at conferences and learning about the world!
Avoiding the pressure to always do more while engaging in the community.
Noting the impact that Elixir has had on each of us, and how we write code respectively.
Proactive learning and career growth; looking forward to the new season exploring these subjects!
Staying focused on what's important, getting rest, and pursuing passions.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Aino — https://github.com/oestrich/aino
Aino Read Me — https://ainoweb.dev/readme.html
King Tooth — https://www.instagram.com/kingtooth_pug/
SmartLogic Apprenticeship Program — https://smartlogic.io/about/community/apprentice/
SmartLogic Welcomes Two New Developer Apprentices to the Team! — https://smartlogic.io/blog/2021apprentices/
Elixir Conf — https://2021.elixirconf.com/
Culttt — https://www.culttt.com/
Shrek — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shrek
Kangaroo Jack — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kangaroo_jack
Korn — https://www.kornofficial.com/
Flutter — https://flutter.dev/docs/resources/books
Lonestar Elixir — https://lonestarelixir.com/

Wrapping up BEAM Magic with Amos King Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

We have reached the final episode of our season, and as we wrap up our exploration of BEAM magic, we are joined by Amos King, whose tweet was the inspiration behind this season's focus! We've had such a great time this season and hope that our listeners have enjoyed it as much as we have, and gained something in the process. Our conversation with Amos jumps around from exploring his experiences during the last year and a half, to the journey he has been on with his company, Binary Noggin, life as a CEO, and much more! We delve into some thoughts from our guest about the relationship between magic and understanding and also talk a little about this year's upcoming ElixirConf, where Amos will be speaking. Amos also shares how learning a new language can help the coding you do in languages you already know, and tells an interesting story about how he turned a long commute into a superpower! So stay tuned for Season 7, coming to you soon, and thank you for sticking with us this long!

Key Points From This Episode:

Looking forward to this year's ElixirConf and the hope that it will proceed.
Amos' return to the office after three months of working from home.
A little about Binary Noggin and the different size clients they work with.
The inspiration behind the company name and the transition from side work to a full-time gig.
Amos' experiences as a CEO during the pandemic and the surprising growth at Binary Noggin.
How Amos inspired the BEAM Magic theme for this season and his thoughts on understanding.
Amos' experiences of speaking at conferences and the possibility of presenting about magic.
Some details on Amos' talk this year at ElixirConf.
How Amos was introduced to Elixir through Erlang and the things that made him love it!
The impact that learning new languages can have on your work in general.
How an extremely long commute early in Amos' career served him in unexpected ways.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic Jobs — https://smartlogic.io/about/jobs
Amos King on Twitter — https://twitter.com/adkron
Binary Noggin — https://binarynoggin.com/
Binary Noggin Careers — https://binarynoggin.com/about-us/#careers
Binary Noggin Email — contact@binarynoggin.com
DirtyInformation — http://dirtyinformation.com/
Elixir Outlaws — https://elixiroutlaws.com/
Wallaby — https://github.com/elixir-wallaby/wallaby
Testing Elixir — https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54156353-testing-elixir

Special Guest: Amos King.

Mini-Feature Extravaganza featuring Tyler Clemens, Elom Amouzou, Elise Navarro, and Jeremy Neal Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

This episode serves as a round-up of some of the special mini-features we have recorded throughout Season 6, where we'll hear from Tyler Clemens, Elom Amouzou, Elise Navarro, and Jeremy Neal about their work and experiences with Elixir. Our first segment is with Tyler, who is a software developer at Jackpocket, where he explains what he is currently busy with and how the company is offering access to the lottery in more safe and convenient ways. We then move on to Elom, who talks about transitioning from a life in public education, and what prompted him to learn functional programming. Elise, who works at Zingeroo, takes us through her relatively new career, why she is so excited about Elixir, and the interesting work that is being done at her company to educate the public about the stock market. Lastly, Jeremy talks to us about the socially conscious agenda at Clover Food Lab, his personal interests in cooking and baking, and how he came to work with Elixir. All of our guests share helpful resources for learning, and reflections on their time working within Elixir - make sure to join us to catch all this good stuff!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tyler's path into software engineering and the first language he learned.
What Jackpocket offers its customers and how Elixir is used within the company.
Tyler's thoughts on the perks and challenges associated with engineering with Elixir.
The most helpful resources that Tyler uses when in need: Elixir Slack, books, and Elixir School!
Onboarding and training in Elixir and the biggest challenges presented in this area.
Tyler's passion for photography and imagining an alternative career path in this direction.
Elom's first programming language and the subsequent transition into Elixir.
How Elom moved into working in programming from his roots in education.
Elom's perspective on the positives associated with adopting Elixir early on.
Resource recommendations from Elom for early-stage developers.
Considering the pros and cons of the small intimate Elixir community and its future.
Elom's ideal alternative career path and favorite book!
Elise's beginnings in programming and her move from a career in digital media.
Comparing Elixir with other languages; Elise weighs in with her experiences.
What Zingeroo does and how they use Elixir to make the stock market more accessible through the app.
The benefits of using Elixir for a real-time app like Zingeroo.
The resources that have been most valuable to Elise since joining the community.
Elise's alternative career path, and her passion for teaching Pilates.
Jeremy's educational and professional path into software engineering and working with Elixir.
How Jeremy has been using LiveView in his work to get a functional UI up and running.
What Clover Food Lab does and how Elixir is used at the company and online store.
Jeremy's thoughts on a different career and why he would love to be a baker!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Tyler Clemens — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerclemens
Jackpocket — https://jackpocket.com/
Elixir in Action — https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38732242-elixir-in-action
Elixir School — https://elixirschool.com/
Turing School — https://turing.edu/
Pragmatic Bookshelf — https://pragprog.com/
Code Flow Thinking Elixir — https://thinkingelixir.com/available-courses/code-flow/
Frantz Fanon — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frantz-Fanon
Peau Noire, Masques Blancs — https://www.amazon.com/Peau-Noire-Masques-Blancs-French/dp/2020006014
Elise Navarro — https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-navarro
Zingeroo — https://zingeroo.com/
Jeremy Neal — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-neal-59ba8b82
Clover Food Lab — https://www.cloverfoodlab.com/

Special Guests: Elise Navarro, Jeremy Neal, and Tyler Clemens.

Delving Deeper into Magic with Quinn Wilton Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

Joining us on the show today is Quinn Wilton, and we have a wonderful conversation with our guest about her journey with Elixir, unusual path into programming, and her wide appreciation for different languages! We start off looking at the time Quinn spent at Waterloo University and what separates the Canadian ethos around computer science. From there, we turn to Quinn's early work in programming, the first proper job that she stepped into, and the immediate affinity she felt for working in Elixir. We also talk a bit about the interesting research that Quinn has been conducting privately, tracking and plotting the path of Erlang over the decades, while also reflecting on the skill of academic reading. We spend some necessary time hearing from Quinn about the BEAM and what BEAM magic means to her, before hearing about her website, love of Twitter, other languages that currently have her excited, and the avenues she is most lit up about exploring in the future! Listen in to hear it all, as we continue this journey!

Key Points From This Episode:

Quinn's reflections on her education in Canada, and differences to the American approach to computer science.
Reasons that Quinn wanted to pursue a career in programming
The first jobs that Quinn landed as a programmer; creating a Roblox game and tracking malware.
How Quinn was introduced to Elixir and the immediate love she felt for the language.
The recent work that Quinn has been busy with researching and tracing the history of Erlang.
Experiences of reading academic papers and what sets it apart from other formats.
The inspiration behind Quinn's website and her affinity for Twitter's format.
Quinn's favorite characteristics of the BEAM: the debugging possibilities.
The project that Quinn worked on using Gleam on the BEAM and her enjoyment of its simplicity.
Some possible areas, outlined by Joe Armstrong, that Quinn is excited to explore in the near future.
Quinn's huge appreciation for different programming languages and her fascination with Strand.
Encouragement from Quinn to dive into reading intimidating research papers.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/jobs
Quinn Wilton — https://quinnwilton.com/
Quinn Wilton on Twitter — https://twitter.com/wilton_quinn
Quinn Wilton on GitHub — https://github.com/QuinnWilton
University of Waterloo — https://uwaterloo.ca/
Roblox — https://www.roblox.com/
Lookout — https://www.lookout.com/
Clint Gibler — https://clintgibler.com/
Gleam — https://gleam.run/
Joe Armstrong — https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary
'Getting Erlang to talk to the outside world' — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2549678_Getting_Erlang_to_talk_to_the_outside_world
Universal Binary Format — https://github.com/ubf/ubf
CLU — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLU_(programming_language)
Strand — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand_(programming_language)

Special Guest: Quinn Wilton.

The Bridge Between Elixir and Zig with Isaac Yonemoto Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

While NIFs provide a great way to interface with native code in the BEAM machine, the process can also be rather error-prone. Thankfully, since Isaac Yonemoto built Zigler, things have become a lot simpler, and he joins us today to talk about how. Isaac is an Elixir developer with a background in biotech and we kick off the discussion by hearing about his journey into programming and some of the ways that he has combined it with science. From there we hear more about the different languages Isaac has worked in and why he fell in love with Elixir, where he talks about its encouragement of test-driven development and how this has made him a better programmer. We dive right into the contributions Isaac is making to the Elixir community next, and he starts off by talking about Zigler. He explains how Zigler provides a bridge between Zig and Elixir that makes it far easier to build NIFs. We hear a bunch of the other cool possibilities that Zigler offers to Elixir as well, including its ability to make debugging easier by appending the Zig stack trace to the Elixir one. After hearing Isaac’s opinion of magic in Elixir, we close today's show off with a few of the other projects he is working on, contributions that are bound to make the world of Elixir even more exciting!

Key Points From This Episode:

Isaac’s early exposure to programming and how he got started in tech.
The education Isaac had in the sciences and his experience in the biotech sphere.
Difficulties with installing Ruby and how this led to Isaac learning Elixir.
Support for asynchronous testing and the reasons why Isaac finds joy in Elixir.
The emphasis on test-driven development in Elixir and how this has made Isaac a better programmer.
Isaac’s experiences with Zig and the similarities between it and Elixir.
How NIFs allow C code in Elixir and what it is like debugging them.
Isaac’s Zigler project and how it provides integration between Elixir and Zig making it easy to build NIFs.
Cross-compiling C using Zig and why Isaac built a disassembler.
Aspects of the BEAM that make it harder to write NIFs in Elixir than in Julia.
Isaac’s opinion of magic in programming and how it should always be comprehensible.
Final plugs from Isaac: where to find Zigler, and some upcoming projects.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Isaac Yonemoto on Twitter — https://twitter.com/DNAutics
Isaac Yonemoto on GitHub — https://github.com/ityonemo
Isaac Yonemoto on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCarZZW7eavljSdGRQx9kkSA
Selectrix — https://github.com/ityonemo/selectrix
Mavis — https://github.com/ityonemo/mavis
Chiaroscuro - https://github.com/ityonemo/chiaroscuro
Zigler - https://hexdocs.pm/zigler/Zig.html
Zigler on GitHub — https://github.com/ityonemo/zigler
Julia — https://julialang.org/
Testing Elixir with Jeffrey Matthias and Andrea Leopardi — https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s6e6-matthias-leopardi/

Special Guest: Isaac Yonemoto.

Maxim Fedorov on Building and Scaling WhatsApp with Erlang Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

Today we are so excited to share a conversation with Maxim Fedorov, who is the Core Infrastructure Lead at communications giant, WhatsApp! In our chat, Maxim offers such interesting insight and wisdom from a long career in the space, focusing on Erlang and why he views it as such a powerful language for the work at WhatsApp. We also get some backstory from Maxim, looking at his first experiences with computers, his educational background, and some of the work he did leading up to his current position. Our guest does a great job of sharing his thoughts on what he sees as a lack of magic within the Erlang language, why he prefers this, and how the company has managed to scale in such a major way over the past years. We also deal with some more general questions, weighing functional languages against object-oriented ones, useful resource recommendations, and a whole lot more! We finish off this episode with a mini-interview with David Hardwick, who is the current Vice President of Engineering at STORD, so make sure to stay tuned until the end for that!

Key Points From This Episode:

The beginnings of Maxim's interest in computer science and software development.
How Maxim transitioned into the network security field.
Maxim's experience with timezones and how this is approached for an app like WhatsApp.
Thoughts on why WhatsApp is so popular outside of the United States.
How Erlang is used at WhatsApp to power messaging.
Probable reasons that Erlang was selected as the language for WhatsApp.
Outages and downtime; what constitutes a serious issue for WhatsApp user experience.
The massive growth that WhatsApp has seen and how their approach to scaling has evolved.
Characteristics of Erlang that make it so well suited to WhatsApp's needs; simplicity and reliability.
Maxim's perspective on the issues around programmer education and their results.
Functional languages versus object-oriented programming; Maxim's thoughts on strengths and weaknesses.
Why Maxim views Erlang as not containing or performing anything magical.
Maxim's recommendations for resources when getting started in Erlang!
Looking back at Maxim's experiences of tertiary education and the thesis he produced.
The scaling of the WhatsApp server; the project that Maxim is most proud of!
Maxim's love for motorcycles and bicycles and how these grew out of initial conveniences.
Today's mini-feature interview with David Hardwick, VP of Engineering at STORD.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Maxim Fedorov: https://au.linkedin.com/in/maxim-fedorov-14a570b
Electronika MK-61 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektronika_MK-52
Brian Acton — https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-acton/
Learn You Some Erlang — https://learnyousomeerlang.com/
Adopting Erlang — https://github.com/adoptingerlang
Joe Armstrong Thesis — https://erlang.org/download/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf
The BEAM Book— https://github.com/happi/theBeamBook
ejabberd — https://www.ejabberd.im/
Will Cathcart Tweet — https://twitter.com/wcathcart/status/1385253969522413568
Clarke's three laws — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
Lukas Larson — https://twitter.com/garazdawi
Erlang OTP — https://github.com/erlang/otp/blob/master/lib/kernel/src/pg.erl
David Hardwick — https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhardwick
STORD — https://www.stord.com/
BetterCloud — http://www.bettercloud.com/

Special Guest: Maxim Fedorov.

Chelsea Troy on the Importance of Access and the Impact of Teaching Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

Some of you may recognize Chelsea Troy from her popular blog of the same name or as a keynote speaker for the March 2021 Code BEAM conference. Chelsea is an instructor in the Master's Program in Computer Science at the University of Chicago and currently works as a staff software engineer at Mozilla, where she specializes in machine learning and backend systems. In our conversation with Chelsea, we discuss some of the unique aspects of coding as a career. Chelsea outlines how programming can be more accessible than other careers because it doesn't have the same financial burden when it comes to education. She also emphasizes the importance of allowing a more diverse range of people access to the field and unpacks the type of person the internet was originally built for, explaining how it had favored privileged affluent individuals from the Bay Area. We hear from Chelsea about how she became a programmer out of a desire for job security rather than passion and why she believes it’s so important to have a broader representation of different narratives when it comes to careers in programming and coding. Later Chelsea shares the story of how she became an educator and why she is so passionate about teaching. For all this and much more, join us today!

Key Points From This Episode:

Introducing today’s guest Chelsea Troy
Why Chelsea believes it’s important to privilege multiple narratives of why people choose to pursue programming as a career.
There is less of a financial burden with becoming a programmer than other higher-paying professions.
The benefits of a diverse group of people having access to programming as a career.
What first prompted Chelsea to start her blog and how her goals for it have changed over time.
Why Chelsea struggles to give advice on how to market a blog.
How being able to draw parallels between different coding languages has strengthened Chelsea’s teaching and writing pursuits.
Why Chelsea is so enthusiastic about teaching.
How teaching allows Chelsea to have a more meaningful impact in the field of tech.
How Chelsea prioritizes which jobs and clients to pursue as a consultant.
How having two parents who taught for living influenced Chelsea’s passion for teaching.
Chelsea shares how she earned her position at Chicago University, despite expecting not to.
The challenges and benefits of teaching remotely.
The pros and cons of functional languages versus object-oriented languages.
How students tend to react to learning functional languages versus object-oriented languages.
Mini-feature segment: hear from Rosemary about how she became a software engineer.
How Rosemary built websites as a side hustle while studying English.
Rosemary shares how she transitioned from working with Java and Blu-ray discs to doing back-end web development and writing in Elixir.
How RentPath, the company Rosemary is currently working for, is transitioning from Ruby to Elixir.
An outline of RentPath and what they do.
Rosemary’s many hobbies and pursuits, including wildlife photography.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Chelsea Troy on Twitter — https://twitter.com/HeyChelseaTroy
Chelsea Troy on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseatroy/
Chelsea Troy Blog — https://chelseatroy.com/
Upcoming Code BEAM Conferences — https://codesync.global/
Chelsea Troy on Youtube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIwpdjmSUJmqJ8HwvIGNqig
Ruby — https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
Mozilla — mozilla.org/en-US/
Pocket — https://getpocket.com/
Rosemary Ledesma — https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-ledesma-b6198717/
RentPath — https://www.rentpath.com/
RedFin — https://www.redfin.com/

Special Guest: Chelsea Troy.

Testing Elixir with Jeffrey Matthias and Andrea Leopardi Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

While we can think of many reasons why we love Elixir, the community could always benefit from a more lively conversation around testing. It was with this in mind that Jeffrey Matthias and Andrea Leopardi decided to write Testing Elixir, and today they join us on the show to share some of the insights to be found in their new book. Our guests start by sketching out the main reasons why they decided to write a book of this nature before speaking to the process of writing it collaboratively from their respective homes in Italy and the US. Andrea and Jeffrey speak about the challenges of finding a middle ground between their unique styles to come up with a unified testing method. The conversation then takes a deep dive into the weeds of testing in Elixir and we hear our guests' perspectives on the most appropriate situations to use async true, Mox, Ecto Sandbox, and other techniques. We wrap up our interview with a question about what Andrea and Jeffrey would most like people to take away from their book where they express the hope that it can act as a springboard for further conversation about best practices for testing in Elixir and more. As always, we close the show off with our mini-interview, this time talking to Tracey Onim from Podii.

Key Points From This Episode:

Why Jeffrey and Andrea wrote their book and how they pitched it to the publisher.
How the feedback Andrea and Jeffrey got while writing the book shaped its content.
What writing the book was like considering its authors live in different countries.
How our guests came up with a unified testing method when each had their own style.
Stories about testing mistakes and the funny situations they led to.
Discussing the HBO integration test email and how it was responded to and dealt with.
The issue of developers not using async true enough and how to get better at it.
When to use async true, Ecto Sandbox, and Mox.
Why our guests use Mox, when the best times to use it are, and how it shapes your thinking.
Exploring the relationship between test driven development and using the program.
What can go wrong if you rely purely on tests to test out your code.
The main takeaways our guests hope can be found in their book.
Final plugs from Jeffrey and Andrea and where to find them online.
A quick interview where we learn more about Tracey Onim from Podii.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Jeffrey Matthias on Twitter — https://twitter.com/idlehands
Andrea Leopardi — https://andrealeopardi.com/
Andrea Leopardi on Twitter — https://twitter.com/whatyouhide
Andrea Leopardi on GitHub — https://github.com/whatyouhide/corsica
Testing Elixir — http://testingelixir.com/
Testing Elixir — https://pragprog.com/titles/lmelixir/testing-elixir/
Testing Elixir — https://www.target.com/p/testing-elixir-by-andrea-leopardi-jeffrey-matthias-paperback/-/A-83072057#lnk=sametab
Testing Elixir on Twitter — https://twitter.com/testingelixir
Publish with The Pragmatic Bookshelf — https://pragprog.com/become-an-author/
Ecto.Adapters.SQL.Sandbox — https://hexdocs.pm/ecto_sql/Ecto.Adapters.SQL.Sandbox.html
Mox — https://hexdocs.pm/mox/Mox.html
Command Line Options — https://hexdocs.pm/mix/1.12/Mix.Tasks.Test.html#module-command-line-options
Mocks and Explicit Contracts — http://blog.plataformatec.com.br/2015/10/mocks-and-explicit-contracts/
bypass — https://github.com/PSPDFKit-labs/bypass
Test-Driven Development with Phoenix — https://www.tddphoenix.com/
Tracey Onim — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-onim-420b3316a?originalSubdomain=ke
Podii — https://www.apollo.io/companies/Podii/5c1df0e8f651257261ddc16a?chart=count

Special Guests: Andrea Leopardi and Jeffrey Matthias.

Scaling and The Growth Curve with Francesco Cesarini Jun 03, 2021

Show notes

Joining us for this episode of Elixir Wizards is the vastly experienced and well-traveled Francesco Cesarini! Francesco is the founder of Erlang Solutions and we are so lucky to have him here on the show to talk about his personal and professional journey, and take this great season of shows on the magic of the BEAM even further. Francesco takes us through his early interactions with computers and coding and the events that led to his decision to study computer science, before diving into his move to Sweden, and subsequently the UK, and how this all resulted in the founding of his company. Our guest touches on some helpful lessons he learned around marketing and branding, particularly related to the name of the company and we also discuss how the company grew in stages over the years. From there, the conversation turns to Francesco's work on conferences, and his commitment to this important feature of the community. We talk about the benefits of virtual conferences, what to look forward to, and the team that Francesco works with when organizing. To finish off this segment, our guest gives a few recommended resources and comments on Erlang syntax too! For today's mini-feature we welcome Jeffery Utter who works as a Senior Software Developer at Bleacher Report, so make sure to tune in to catch it all!

Key Points From This Episode:

Francesco's route into coding from an early age and first forays into studying computer science.
The first job that Francesco had out of college: an exciting internship at Ericsson.
How Francesco founded Erlang Solutions after leaving Sweden and moving to London.
The big growth steps that happened over the years as Erlang Solutions developed.
Francesco's evolving mindset during this growth period and his attitude towards scaling the company.
The current size of the company and the offices that are spread all over the world!
Virtual conferences, more connectivity, and the benefits of getting involved in the community.
The planning process for conferences and the size of the team that put them together.
The growth curve for Erlang Solutions over the years and the main drivers in the process.
Examples from the explanatory videos that Francesco produced to help people understand Erlang.
Francesco's feelings about Erlang syntax and the misconceptions about its difficulty.
Recommendations of helpful resources to aid the learning curve.
Getting involved with Erlang Solutions and connecting with Francesco and his team!
Jeffery Utter from Bleacher Report joins us to briefly talk about his journey with Elixir.
The time that Jeffery spent working at Communication Service for the Deaf prior to Bleacher Report.
Some updates on the growth and evolution of Bleacher Report and what they offer users.
How Elixir is used at Bleacher Report and its succession of Ruby at the company.
Jeffery's alternate career paths and qualifications in music and education!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Elixir Conference — http://smr.tl/conf-podcast
Francesco Cesarini on Twitter — https://twitter.com/FrancescoC
Joe Armstrong — https://codersatwork.com/joe-armstrong.html
Erlang Solutions — https://www.erlang-solutions.com/
Erlang Programming Language - Computerphile — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOqQVoVai6s
Chalmers University of Technology — https://www.chalmers.se/en/Pages/default.aspx
Erlang & Elixir Developers | Careers at Erlang Solutions — https://www.erlang-solutions.com/careers/
Code BEAM V SF 2021 — https://codesync.global/conferences/code-beam-sf-2021/.
RabbitMQ Summit— https://rabbitmqsummit.com/
Languages, and about languages, on the BEAM — https://github.com/llaisdy/beam_languages
Lambda Days 2021 — https://www.lambdadays.org/lambdadays2021
Code Mesh — https://codesync.global/conferences/code-mesh-ldn
Erlang Master Classes University of Kent — https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/ErlangMasterClasses/
Professor Simon Thompson — https://www.kent.ac.uk/computing/people/3164/thompson-simon
Designing for Scalability with Erlang/OTP — https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-for-scalability/9781449361556/
Erlang Programming — https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/erlang-programming/9780596803940/
Jeffery Utter — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffutter
Bleacher Report — https://bleacherreport.com/
Communication Service for the Deaf — https://www.csd.org/
Gallaudet University — https://www.gallaudet.edu/

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