Beam Radio Episode 93: Chris Nelson and a Riveting Convo on Elixir
Jul 10, 2025
Chris Nelson, co-founder of LaunchScout and Elixir expert from Cincinnati, discusses the intriguing transition from Ruby to Elixir. He emphasizes the importance of aesthetics in programming and shares his experience with community engagement through meetups. Chris dives into the WebAssembly component model's role in cross-language integration and the varying adoption of Elixir in Europe versus the US. He also touches on the hands-on use of LLMs for Elixir development, highlighting innovative methods to enhance workflows and reduce errors.
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Grassroots Elixir Adoption Story
- Chris described LaunchScout's gradual switch from Ruby to Elixir driven by engineers trying it and sharing enthusiasm.
- The team adopted Elixir because it felt fun, productive, and familiar coming from Rails.
Language Aesthetics Drive Adoption
- Chris compared Elixir's appeal to Ruby's: aesthetics and developer enjoyment matter as much as technical advantages.
- He said Elixir was the first functional language that clicked for him like Ruby did.
From Violin To Coding
- Chris told how he studied violin at the Cincinnati Conservatory before switching to computer science.
- He admitted he didn't want to practice five hours a day and pivoted into programming instead.