Elixir Wizards

Welcome to another episode of Elixir Wizards, a show focused on conversations with software developers from around the world on the Elixir language and other modern web technologies. In today’s episode, we speak with Meks McClure, a Full Stack Software Engineer with an unconventional background in Biology and Philosophy. Meks found their passion for programming after building a website for a Mexican non-profit, Permanencia Voluntaria, using wix.com. Seeing people use the website and how it helped the community inspired Meks to pursue a career in programming. They are currently based at NewAperio, a software development company, as a Junior Developer. In today’s show we find out more about Meks’s professional background, NewAperio and the services they offer, more about their unconventional training background, challenges transitioning to a new career path, the importance of effective communication in the workplace, the significance of Pride Month, Meks’s very cool desk setup, and much more! Tune in today to learn more from today’s special guest, Meks McClure! Key Points From This Episode: A brief breakdown of today’s topic and introduction to our special guest, Meks McClure. We find out about NewAperio and what services they offer. How long Meks has been based at NewAperio. Find out what the NewAperio tradition is for people celebrating their work anniversary. A light-hearted discussion about singing Happy Birthday to colleagues. Meks gives us a rundown of their professional career. We find out more about Meks’s non-traditional programming background. How long they have been using Elixir for and how they initially got started in it. The lessons they learned from their Flatiron and Elixir development experience. What was most difficult transitioning from working Ruby to Elixir. Keeping a balance between learning and meeting productivity targets. The moment when Meks felt like they were making good progress transitioning. Some advice they have for people learning Elixir. Other projects that Meks is currently working on and programming languages used. How boot camp is different from real-world situations, in terms of programming. We find out about Meks’s current Star Wars obsession. The importance of finding enjoyment outside of work. Meks shares their personal journey to becoming the person they are today. A conversation about the importance of Pride Month and keeping an open mind. A highlight of some communication challenges that come with remote working. Why empathetic and effective communication is essential in the workplace. We reflect on some recent networking opportunities and conferences. The approach at NewAperio to networking and conferences. Details about Meks’ desk setup and why it is called the ‘Moon Lander’. More about their desk setup: keycap preferences. How learning Elixir changed the way Meks thinks about programming in general. Meks explains their approach to writing code. What their ultimate combination of programming languages are. What opportunities or weaknesses that a polyglot environment can introduce. *Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: * Meks McClure on Twitter — https://twitter.com/mmcclure0100 Meks McClure on GitHub — https://github.com/MMcClure11 Meks McClure on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/meksmcclure/ NewAperio — https://newaperio.com/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Sundi Myint on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sundikhin Owen Bickford on Twitter — https://twitter.com/owenbickford/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io Moon Lander — https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/ Difficult Conversations — https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/331191/difficult-conversations-by-douglas-stone-bruce-patton-and-sheila-heen-foreword-by-roger-fisher/ Kailh Speed Silver (Linear) Mechanical Switch Kit — https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Linear-Mechanical-EVGA-Keyboard/dp/B09N9BXW7Z Special Guest: Meks McClure.

A superpower of software development is teaching our code to teach us what’s happening. This is observability, and it’s why Jessica Kerr works at Honeycomb, where she is a Developer Advocate. After twenty years as a developer, Jess sees software as a significant force in the world. As a symmathecist in the medium of code, she views development teams as learning systems made of both people and software. She believes that, if we allow the software to teach us, it becomes a better teammate and, if this process makes us into systems thinkers, we can be better people in the world! Today, Jess compares the way we work in teams to game design and we find out what she means by observability and how it can serve everybody on a team. She elaborates on the remarkable agency that software developers have and how the languages they use can empower them, especially when they aren’t having specific architecture imposed on them! We also touch on what being a polyglot means to Jess, the value of working with rather then against complexity, and what Jess means when she says a software team is the perfect example of a symmathesy, plus so much more, so make sure to tune in today for this fascinating conversation with Jessica Kerr! *Key Points From This Episode: * Jess starts by drawing an interesting comparison between teamwork and game design. Insight into her journey as a developer and how she was introduced to Elixir. Discover Jess’ connection to Elixir iteratees via Jose Valim! Her role at Honeycomb, the languages she uses, and what she means by observability. Why Jess believes that developers have agency and enormous power. Why the best language to use is the one that you and your team know best. The value of standardizing the platform rather than trying to dictate the language. How observability reveals connections and acts as one tool that serves everybody. Congressive versus ingressive behavior as per Dr. Eugenia Cheng. What being a polyglot means to Jess: accepting that others don’t think just like you do and actively learning from them. Working skillfully within complexity rather than trying to eliminate it. How people gain exposure to different languages at Honeycomb. The importance of understanding what architecture is being imposed on you. Jess’ favorite talk on symmathesy and why a software team in particular is a symmathesy. Opportunities and/or weaknesses that being in a polyglot environment can introduce. Ways you can connect with Jess and even sign up for a 30-minute chat with her! *Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: * Jessica Kerr — https://jessitron.com/ Jessica Kerr on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicakerr/ Jessica Kerr on Twitter — https://twitter.com/jessitron Honeycomb — https://www.honeycomb.io/ Schedule a Call with Jess — honeycomb.io/office-hours Games: Agency As Art — https://objectionable.net/games-agency-as-art/ OpenTelemetry — https://opentelemetry.io/ Matthew Skelton — https://blog.matthewskelton.net/ Team Topologies — https://teamtopologies.com/ QCon — https://plus.qconferences.com/ Keynote: ’The Language is the Least of It’ — https://youtu.be/nvV-4040xXI Dr Eugenia Cheng — http://eugeniacheng.com/ x + y — https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/eugenia-cheng/x-y/9781541646513/ 'Backend for frontend (BFF) pattern’ — https://medium.com/mobilepeople/backend-for-frontend-pattern-why-you-need-to-know-it-46f94ce420b0 Abstract syntax tree — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree Keynote: ‘Collective Problem Solving in Music, Science, Art, and Software’ — https://jessitron.com/2019/11/05/keynote-collective-problem-solving-in-music-science-art-and-software/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guest: Jessica Kerr.

Welcome back to another episode of Elixir Wizards. Today, we chat with Digit, a talented software engineer currently based at SmartRent. He became aware of the company when he started trying to modify his smart home and realized what was behind the software. Digit works on building applications within the SmartRent suite of tools using the Nerves ecosystem. Although fairly new at SmartRent, Digit loves the powerful applications of the software they are developing. In today’s show we find out more about the work Digit is currently involved with at SmartRent and what they have in store for the future. We also discuss the pros and cons of living in a smart home, the different languages that Digit uses, what makes developing a game so challenging, Using Elixir for building DSLs to generate content for Unity, what Digit’s opinion is of Burrito, and much more! For all this and more, be sure to tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Introduction to today’s show and brief catch-up of what everyone has been up to. We find out what talks at the conference Digit is most looking forward to. What OTP stands for: hint, it is not ‘Open Telephony Platform.’ A brief discussion about the advantages of a one-day conference. We find out who all the people are that are going to give talks at EMPEX. Digit shares what it has been like working at SmartRent. We find out how Digit landed the job at SmartRent. Breakdown of what SmartRent is in terms of the high level. We get some insider knowledge of the next-generation technology at SmartRent. Rundown of what Flutter is and the advantages of using it. Discussion about the pros and cons of living in a smart home. Find out what the best smart thermostat is, according to Digit. The different programming languages that Digit is currently working in. Digit explains the type of WebSocket support available in Flutter. Background about Digit’s experience in game development. What makes finishing developing a game so difficult. The language stack used to develop games. Using Elixir for building DSLs to generate content for Unity. Digit gives listeners an overview of Burrito. The advantages of using Burrito for cross-platform with no internet connection. Examples of real-world applications using Burrito. Other applications for Elixir outside of web application development. We get some insider information about a new Elixir-based project in the works. A rundown of the security applications using Macaroons. The power that passwordless authentication has to offer. We end the show with some takeaways from Digit for listeners. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Digit — https://puppy.surf Digit on GitHub — https://github.com/doawoo Digit on Twitter — https://twitter.com/doawoo SmartRent — https://smartrent.com SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Sundi Myint on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sundikhin/ Owen Bickford on Twitter — https://twitter.com/owenbickford/ EMPEX — https://www.empex.co Flutter — https://flutter.dev/Special Guest: Digit.

Joining us in conversation today is Nathan Willson all the way from Tokyo, Japan. Listeners will learn about the polyglot landscape he works in from Japan, why he believes knowing a language, and mastering it, are two different things, and what his first foray into coding looked like. We touch on the necessary evil of MIDI plugins, and Nathan introduces listeners to GEMS, how you can use it, and what he has done to make it accessible across the globe. We talk latency issues, curbing the potential for abuse, and choosing to make an app open source, before delving into Nathan’s other projects outside of GEMS, including the Elixir app, Biddy, that he built with five friends, When to Chat, and much more. Thanks for tuning in to hear from today’s inspiring guest. Key Points From This Episode: An introduction to today’s guest, Nathan Willson, his Canadian-Japanese history, his obsession with Elixir, and his musical experimental app, GEMS. The polyglot environment in which he works which is Japanese and English. Why knowing a language and mastering a language are such different things. His first foray into coding via Reaper’s plugins. Why he considers MIDI to be a necessary evil. What GEMS, or Globally Editable Matrix Sequencer, is, and how it works. How Phoenix or Elixir can facilitate the use of GEMS anywhere in the world, at the same time. How he has approached the problem of the potential for abuse. Relative and absolute latency and how that impacts user experience between countries. Nathan’s other projects outside of GEMS, including the Elixir app, Biddy, and TreeLib. The app, When to Chat, that Nathan has built. Where he picked up his design skills with a background in back-end engineering. Why he prefers BandCamp to Spotify as a music listener. How his knowledge of Elixir has helped him to code Ruby better. An invitation from Nathan to reach out with what you are working on. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Tone.js — https://tonejs.github.io/ BandCamp — https://bandcamp.com/ Nathan Wilson — https://nathanwillson.com/ Nathan Willson on Twitter — https://twitter.com/nathanwillson Nathan Willson on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/nahtanw/ GEMS — https://gems.nathanwillson.com/ What is Max? | Cycling ‘74 — https://cycling74.com/products/max When to Chat —https://whentochat.co/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guest: Nathan Willson.

This week we are joined by Sanne Kalkman, former teacher turned software engineer. Currently, Sanne works at CodeSandbox, where she's one of two Elixir developers responsible for the backend. When she's not coding, you'll probably find her either 25 browser tabs deep into a new CS topic, learning yet another new hobby, or behind her sewing machine, all of which we dive into in today’s episode! Tuning in, you’ll discover which languages Sanne is proficient in and why she doesn’t consider herself a polyglot; gain some insight into CodeSandbox Projects, a more collaborative rewrite of CodeSandbox from the ground up; and get a sneak peek into Sanne’s upcoming keynote address at Code BEAM Europe in May 2022, which tackles how to help juniors succeed in your organization. We also touch on garbage collection in Elixir, cute avatars, the intersection of code and sewing, and much, much more, so make sure not to miss this fun and insightful conversation with coder and crafter, Sanne Kalkman! Key Points From This Episode: What it’s like living in the Netherlands, Sanne’s favorite TV show, and more. An introduction to Sanne, how she found herself in tech, and her role at CodeSandbox. The first language she entered the professional coding space with: Elixir, of course! How she thinks about JavaScript now that she is proficient in another language like Elixir. Learn more about CodeSandbox Projects and how it fosters live collaboration. How the CodeSandbox app is broken down into Elixir, TypeScript, and Rust. Why Sanne views CodeSandbox as a polyglot environment, but she isn’t a polyglot herself. Find out why she prefers to stick with Elixir in her personal capacity. Code BEAM Europe 2022 and some highlights from Sanne’s upcoming keynote address. Top tips for helping juniors succeed at your organization; model asking questions. The TLDR summary of garbage collection in Elixir from Sanne’s 2020 Code BEAM Talk. Cute avatars over headshots, Sanne’s crafty hobbies, side projects, and more! Some of the cool work taking place at the intersection of code and sewing. Opportunities at CodeSandbox to dive into different codebases and learn different things. Final plugs, mentions, and where to connect with Sanne! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Sanne Kalkman on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sannekalkman/ Sanne Kalkman on GitHub — https://github.com/sannek/sketch Sanne Kalkman on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sannekalkman CodeSandbox — https://codesandbox.io/ Our Flag Means Death — https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:series:GYf3LzwJV98JifQEAAAAO Walibi Amusement Park — https://www.walibi.com/ Code BEAM Europe 2022 — https://codesync.global/conferences/code-beam-sto-2022/ Sanne Kalkman: ’Who Takes Out Your Trash’ (Code BEAM V 2020) — https://youtu.be/OSdaXNQ0xhQ Covatar — https://covatar.com/ FreeSewing — https://freesewing.org/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ SmartLogic Jobs — https://smartlogic.io/jobsSpecial Guest: Sanne Kalkman.

This double guest episode features Cassidy Williams, Head of Developer Experience and Education and Tobi Pfeiffer, Staff Engineer from Remote. This fast growing Elixir company provides HR support to clients who are hiring internationally. In this fascinating fast-paced conversation Cassidy and Tobi discuss how Remote works, the explosive growth it has seen and what Cassidy and Tobi have most enjoyed in their time there. Also, we learn more about Cassidy's content creation projects, why Tobi's handle is PragTob, and the strangest laws they have come across when working internationally. We also learn about Cassidy's love of mechanical keyboards and about Tobi's adorable pet rabbits. We wrap up the episode with some great book recommendations and what's upcoming at Remote. Key Points From This Episode: Welcome to Cassidy Williams (Head of Developer Experience and Education) and Tobi Pfeiffer (Staff Engineer) at Remote. Why Cassidy recommends the app Centered for achieving flow state. How different types of music affect everyone’s concentration while coding. Getting to know Tobi: Rails Girls community member, wearer of green and keyboard player. Who Cassidy is: a dweeb who likes memes and how she found the world of coding. What Remote is and how it works. How Tobi came up with the handle PragTob! The explosive growth Remote has seen, and how they stay on top of it. What's coming on the open-source front of Remote. The challenges Remote faces when employing people from different countries. The strangest laws Tobi and Cassidy have come across internationally. Why Cassidy enjoyed the well-practiced onboarding aspects of Remote, and the company values Tobi most appreciates. Tobi’s secret role in the formation of Remote! The people Tobi and Cassidy see moving into Elixir and which skills benefit them the most. Why Tobi's GitHub picture has a rabbit and his favorite game. Cassidy’s passion for mechanical keyboards! Book club recommendations: the books you should be looking out for, and why! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Cassidy Williams on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassidoo/ Cassidy Williams on TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@cassidoo Cassidy Williams’ Newsletter — https://cassidoo.co/newsletter/ Tobi Pfeiffer on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiaspfeiffer Tobi Pfeiffer on GitHub — https://github.com/pragtob Remote — https://remote.com/ Remote GitHub — https://github.com/remoteoss Centered — https://www.centered.app/ Benchee — https://elixirschool.com/en/lessons/misc/benchee SimpleCov — https://github.com/simplecov-ruby Rails Girls Berlin — http://railsgirls.com/berlin The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software — https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Samurai-Software-Pragmatic-Programmers Netlify — https://www.netlify.com/ Devs for Ukraine — https://www.devsforukraine.io/ Jose Valim — https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevalim Marcelo Lebre — https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelolebre RubyConf — https://rubyconf.org/ Rust — https://rust.facepunch.com/ Go — https://go.dev/ Node.js — https://nodejs.org/en/ React — https://reactjs.org/ Astro — https://astro.build/ Supabase — https://supabase.com/ Thea 2: The Shattering — https://store.steampowered.com/app/606230/Thea_2_The_Shattering Mechanical Keyboard — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard QMK Firmware — https://docs.qmk.fm/#/ Brandon Sanderson — https://www.brandonsanderson.com/ Dark Matter — https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-Crouch SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ SmartLogic Jobs — https://smartlogic.io/about/jobsSpecial Guests: Cassidy Williams and Tobi Pfeiffer.

Today’s guest is Devon Estes, who leads the third-party integration team at Remote, a company that uses technology to make it easier for other companies to hire remote employees (not contractors, actual employees) from over 100 countries across the world. Prior to working at Remote (which he loves, as you'll hear today), Devon was a freelancer and avid public speaker, and some of his talks from many years ago are still relevant today. In this conversation, Devon explains why functional programming is easier to use than any other programming type, and how the only thing holding you back from becoming a master is your desire to learn! Key Points From This Episode: Guest host Dan Ivovich explains what prompted him to come up with the theme for this season; Elixir in a Polyglot Environment. A brief rundown of Devon’s daily life. Content that Devon covers in the talks that he gives these days. Devon explains what his role at Remote (where he has worked since November 2021) involves. A challenge that Devon has noticed other people facing when learning Elixir. An overview of what Remote does, and the specific area that Devon’s team focuses on. Functional programming versus object-oriented programming. Devon shares an example of the power of Elixir. The importance of libraries in making Elixir a viable language for data scientists. Devon’s thoughts on mutation testing. Why Devon doesn’t do a lot of open-source work anymore. How Remote has grown over the past year and a half. One of the things that Devon loves about working at Remote. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Devon Estes on Twitter — https://twitter.com/devoncestes Devon Estes — https://devonestes.com/ Refactoring Elixir — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJJMrtJEK1A Going Multi-Node with ExUnit— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elC_8PhWRTg Designing Elixir Systems with OTP — https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45159167-designing-elixir-systems-with-otp ElixirConf EU — https://www.elixirconf.eu/ Remote — http://remote.com/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Jobs at SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/jobsSpecial Guest: Devon Estes.

Welcome to the new season of Elixir Wizards: Elixir in a Polyglot Environment. To get things going on this exciting and intriguing subject we are very happy to welcome Miguel Cobá! Miguel currently works at Shore, and he gives us some great insight into the part that Elixir plays at the company (alongside other languages), and how this suits his particulars skillset and vision. In this season, we want to consider important questions about reaching beyond the confines of the Elixir community, and how we can all learn from each other. Miguel is such a perfect guest to open this conversation, as he is fascinated by the way Elixir can fit into a network of knowledge and its deployment into other areas. In today's chat, we also get into the early days of Miguel's interest in programming, and how it took starting a job for him to really start learning. So, to hear all this and more, and to get a taste of a great season to come, be sure to tune in! Key Points From This Episode: Miguel's perspective on the importance of using Elixir alongside other languages. The languages that Miguel has worked in, and currently uses. A look at the path that Miguel took into programming and the first language he used! Turning an interest into a career; Miguel's biggest periods of learning. Background and motivations for Miguel's book, 100 Elixir Tips. The book that Miguel wrote that aims to help developers to write their own books! Constant learning and the passion that Miguel has for sharing this process with others through writing. Miguel shares some surprising parts of deployment in other languages. The combinations of languages that Miguel prefers. An explanation of Elixir's strength for background or asynchronous tasks. Why Miguel values the attitude above different language skills in a programmer. Unpacking how Elixir fits into the polyglot environment at Shore. How Miguel feels about community building and the usefulness of Twitter. Miguel compares his favorite parts of Elixir and the things he feels it is missing. Where to find and connect with Miguel online! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: 100 Elixir Tips — https://store.miguelcoba.com/l/100elixirtips Deploying Elixir — https://blog.miguelcoba.com/deploying-elixir-ebook Miguel Cobá on Twitter https://twitter.com/MiguelCoba_ Elm — https://elm-lang.org/ Miguel Cobá Blog https://blog.miguelcoba.com/ Gumroad — https://gumroad.com/ Hashnotes — https://www.hashnotes.app/ Shore — https://www.shore.com/en/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Jobs at SmartLogic – https://smartlogic.io/jobsSpecial Guest: Miguel Cobá.

Welcome to the Season 7 finale! Today, we are joined by Todd Resudek, Staff Engineer at Jackpocket, to reflect on the past season and speak about the impact of Elixir, as well as a variety of other topics almost entirely unrelated to programming! Todd is a reformed graphic designer that got his start in web development 15 years ago. He has made a career in front-end development, PHP, Rails, and Elixir. He is also a member of the Hex core team and, in his spare time, he tinkers with hardware projects. In today’s episode of Elixir Wizards, you’ll learn more about the 2022 EMPEX Elixir Mountain event that Todd is co-organizing, the formula for anticipating how many people will turn up at your event, and what trains have to do with the history of timezones. We also touch on Todd’s hopes for the future of Elixir, how Elixir has impacted him, both personally and professionally, and why he recommends learning Elixir as a backup language, plus so much more! Tune in today for a fun discussion with Todd Resudek! ** Key Points From This Episode:** The hilarious and sometimes tragic mispronunciation of our names. Learn more about the 2022 EMPEX Elixir Mountain event that Todd is co-organizing. Todd shares a bit about his background and his allegiance to Wisconsin football. We discuss the formula for how many people to expect at your meetup (or wedding). Some interesting history on timezones and how they relate to trains. Dune memes, roller skating, a qualifier for couple skates, and more. Todd shares his favorite Elixir Wizards episode from Season 7: Brooklyn Zelenka. How Todd learned Elixir when he first started working at Weedmaps. Why he suggests learning Elixir as a ‘backup language’ rather than a primary one. His biggest hope for the future of Elixir: an even more diverse, welcoming community. How a functional programming language like Elixir has impacted the way Todd works. The personal impact the Elixir community has had for Todd by enabling new connections. Find out why Alex’s dog, Bean, loved the test kitchen at their previous workplace. Eric and Alex share how the impact of Elixir has changed for them throughout this season. What all our children, human and animal, had for breakfast. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Todd Resudek on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddresudek/ Todd Resudek on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sprsmpl Todd Resudek on GitHub — https://github.com/supersimple Todd Resudek — https://supersimple.org/ Jackpocket — https://jackpocket.com/ EMPEX Conference — https://www.empex.co/ EMPEX MTN 2022 — https://www.empex.co/mtn Alex’s Favorite Dune Meme — https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/002/234/162/d96 ‘Brooklyn Zelenka and The Exciting World of Edge Computing’ — https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s7e9-zelenka/ Toucan — https://www.toucan.events Elixir Wizards |> Conference — https://smartlogic.io/about/community/elixir-wizards-conference/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Audience Survey -- https://smr.tl/surveySpecial Guest: Todd Resudek.

This week we welcome Arthi Radhakrishnan back to the show to discuss how Elixir and her career more broadly have shaped her perspectives on learning. Arthi first got into programming as a child growing up in the Bay Area, constantly exposed to tech and tech culture. She remembers building websites using GeoCities in high school and learning about data structures and OOP in Java while in college before transitioning to Elixir during her current position as a backend engineer at Community. We hear about what made her learning so enjoyable, the biggest paradigm shifts she needed to make, and she talks about the value of mentorship, pair programming, and working at a company that encourages learning on the job. In today’s show, we also explore a realization that Arthi has come to at the end of her first decade as a software engineer: that effective learning requires a big dose of self-compassion. So, for all this and more, be sure to tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Introducing Arthi and the work she does as a backend engineer for Community. What it was like growing up in the Bay Area and how Arthi got into programming. Going from building websites with GeoCities in high school to building a compiler in college. The big role that Java and OOP played in Arthi’s experience of programming fundamentals. Arthi’s experience of learning Elixir and having to shift away from an OOP paradigm. Where Arthi is in her journey of learning Elixir and why she enjoys it so much. How compelling it is to learn on the job and the value of companies that allow for this. The impact that company culture has on job experiences and career trajectories. Summer internships Arthi did in college and how they shaped her career goals. Finding time to do personal learning and why Advent of Code is so helpful. Why setting low expectations for yourself is a helpful paradigm for learning. Exercising self-compassion while learning and how Arthi’s learning approach has evolved. Why Arthi is so grateful that she has gotten to learn Elixir at Community specifically. What good mentorship looks like to Arthi and why she loves pair programming. How learning Elixir and the past 10 years have shaped Arthi’s sense of her needs. Arthi’s thoughts on how Elixir will evolve in the next 10 years. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Arthi Radhakrishnan — https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthiradhakrishnan/ Community — https://www.community.com/ Advent of Code — https://adventofcode.com/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Audience Survey -- https://smr.tl/surveySpecial Guest: Arthi Radhakrishnan.