Pluralsight, Courses, and Elixir the Big Picture ft. AJ Foster - EMx 263
Nov 20, 2024
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AJ Foster, a developer at Pluralsight and author of an Elixir course, dives into the challenges of creating Elixir content and its integration into Pluralsight's tech stack. He shares insights on the design philosophy rooted in Erlang and emphasizes the advantages of using Elixir for rapid development. AJ also highlights the growing need for more Elixir and Erlang content to enhance industry legitimacy, and shares personal anecdotes that showcase the reliability of these languages. The discussion encourages a robust foundation in Elixir programming for future innovations.
AJ Foster highlights the challenge of demonstrating Elixir's business value to corporate clients by showcasing its rapid prototyping capabilities and long-term reliability.
The need for increased Elixir educational resources on platforms like Pluralsight is crucial for legitimizing the language in the corporate sector and facilitating broader adoption.
Deep dives
The Rise of Elixir Content at Pluralsight
The introduction of Elixir to Pluralsight is significant, as it has involved efforts to bridge the gap between potential users and understanding the language's benefits. AJ Foster's journey to create Elixir content highlights the challenge of convincing a platform focused on corporate clients of the language's viability. He emphasizes the need for content that meets the expectations of businesses looking to upskill employees in emerging technologies. The gradual acceptance of Elixir reflects the growing interest from organizations seeking to adopt this language for development.
Elixir in the Workplace
At Pluralsight, a team currently utilizes Elixir for developing authoring tools and interactive content, showing practical implementation within a corporate environment. Foster stresses the advantages of using Elixir, particularly its speed in developing prototypes and its capability for maintaining reliable long-term products. This aligns with corporate interests in reducing barriers to development and quickly delivering value to customers. By demonstrating Elixir's effectiveness, the team hopes to validate its use even further within the company.
Convincing Stakeholders about Elixir
Foster shares that persuading stakeholders about Elixir's value was challenging, as it required a detailed understanding of both technical and business perspectives. The process involved illustrating how Elixir could meet the specific needs of corporate clients, such as enabling faster prototypes and ensuring long-term reliability. Demonstrating the growing recognition of Elixir through surveys and industry indices helped him make a stronger case for this language. It's vital to show that businesses can benefit from investing in new technologies like Elixir as they consider future projects.
Future of Elixir Content and Community Engagement
The importance of increasing Elixir content across platforms like Pluralsight cannot be overstated, according to Foster. More educational resources would help establish Elixir as a legitimate language in the corporate sector, enabling companies to see its value in training and development. Foster encourages active participation from the community in promoting Elixir through platforms like LinkedIn and Stack Overflow to enhance visibility. He advocates for creating more content that ties technical skills to business outcomes, opening doors for wider adoption of Elixir in various industries.
AJ Foster is a developer at Pluralsight. He talks about the course he made for Pluralsight about Elixir and then talks about how Elixir was brought into Pluralsight, both into their catalog of courses as well as into the tech stack for the company.