Excellent question! In choosing a first programming language, I think the most important things are (1) acquire generic knowledge, (2) have help along the way.

Excellent question! In choosing a first programming language, I think the most important things are (1) acquire generic knowledge, (2) have help along the way. (1) The most important thing to keep in mind while learning a first programming language is that it should teach you the abstract notions of programming, without entrenching your mind into a particular programming paradigm. (When I say paradigm, I mean procedural, functional, object-oriented, message passing---I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.) I have seen countless _very good_ software engineers struggle when switching but from one paradigm to another, but not between languages of similar paradigms. In that respect, a multi-paradigm language is the ideal first programming language. Elixir's origins are functional, but it's evolved to be a multi-paradigm language [1]. (2) To have help along the way, you either need a strong/active community, OR a very helpful compiler. Elixir's compiler isn't particularly helpful, and the community is nascent, so in that regard Elixir isn't the best first programming language. At the end of the day, I think someone's pre-existing mental model of computers should be the tie-breaker (for example, if it's someone with a strong mathematical background, I think they'd enjoy Elixir more than someone who'd get a kick out of making a cute website-based game.) [1] I'm guessing the Elixir community would consider purely-functional Elixir as the most-aesthetically pleasing Elixir, keeping true to its Erlangian origins.