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Elixir is "bad" because it is not a friendly language for people who want to be architecture astronauts at the code level (you can definitely be an architecture

Elixir is "bad" because it is not a friendly language for people who want to be architecture astronauts at the code level (you can definitely be an architecture astronaut at the process management level but that's a very advanced concept). And a lot of CTOs are architecture astronauts.

hosh 2y ago
That's the opposite of my experience. I tend to get those "architect astronauts" in teams using other languages platforms, and the folks I work with Erlang or Elixir tend to be pragmatic and willing to dig down the stack to troubleshoot problems.
- throwawaymaths 2y ago
  That's what I wrote! (Read the first three words with a heap of sardonicism). Edited to add quotes around bad
paradox460 2y ago
Not just that, but there is no giant gorilla backing BEAM. Google pushes Go and Java, Microsoft node and c#
runlaszlorun 2y ago
Apologies for my ignorance but what's an "architecture astronaut"?
- arcanemachiner 2y ago
  Here's the original article: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architecture-astronauts-scare-you/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect... > When you go too far up, abstraction-wise, you run out of oxygen. Sometimes smart thinkers just don’t know when to stop, and they create these absurd, all-encompassing, high-level pictures of the universe that are all good and fine, but don’t actually mean anything at all. > These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. It’s very hard to get them to write code or design programs, because they won’t stop thinking about Architecture. They’re astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don’t know how they’re breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don’t contribute to the bottom line.
  - throwawaymaths 2y ago
    Joel was wrong about one thing, they also work at startups. My roommate worked at a startup where the senior frontend developer was basically building react in svelte + zod. Once a week he would see all his work deleted and completely rewritten in a fever dream PR that the senior produced. Completely impossible for grug developer to follow what's going on, his job eventually became "running this guy's code through chatgpt and adding comments and documentation".

hosh 2y ago

That's the opposite of my experience. I tend to get those "architect astronauts" in teams using other languages platforms, and the folks I work with Erlang or Elixir tend to be pragmatic and willing to dig down the stack to troubleshoot problems.

throwawaymaths 2y ago
That's what I wrote! (Read the first three words with a heap of sardonicism). Edited to add quotes around bad

paradox460 2y ago

Not just that, but there is no giant gorilla backing BEAM. Google pushes Go and Java, Microsoft node and c#

runlaszlorun 2y ago

Apologies for my ignorance but what's an "architecture astronaut"?

arcanemachiner 2y ago
Here's the original article: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architecture-astronauts-scare-you/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect... > When you go too far up, abstraction-wise, you run out of oxygen. Sometimes smart thinkers just don’t know when to stop, and they create these absurd, all-encompassing, high-level pictures of the universe that are all good and fine, but don’t actually mean anything at all. > These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. It’s very hard to get them to write code or design programs, because they won’t stop thinking about Architecture. They’re astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don’t know how they’re breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don’t contribute to the bottom line.
- throwawaymaths 2y ago
  Joel was wrong about one thing, they also work at startups. My roommate worked at a startup where the senior frontend developer was basically building react in svelte + zod. Once a week he would see all his work deleted and completely rewritten in a fever dream PR that the senior produced. Completely impossible for grug developer to follow what's going on, his job eventually became "running this guy's code through chatgpt and adding comments and documentation".