Sophie and Meryl Takeover: Sean Callan and Steven Nunez on Elixir Education

Welcome to another extra special episode of Elixir Wizards! We have guest hosts today, Meryl Dakin of Frame.io and Sophie DeBenedetto of Github, and they welcome Steven Nunez, Staff Engineer at the Flatiron School, and Sean Callan, creator of Elixir School, to the show. Where some would see the fact that Elixir doesn’t have a ton of readily available answers out there as a restriction to mastering the language, our guests argue that this is the best educational environment. Writing about challenges and teaching others how you overcame them are some of the best ways to learn. We also discuss concurrency and other contrasts with prominent languages. Our guests weigh in on dealing with students and how far enthusiasm and openness can go in helping inspire other minds. Steven stresses the need for greater resources, especially at a beginner level, as this will lower the barrier to entry for new programmers and ultimately benefit the entire Elixir community.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Sean and Steven, their work and experience with Elixir.
• Work and professional horoscopes for the panel of today's podcast!
• The accidental path that led Sean to Elixir and the translations that affirmed his work.
• The use of writing and blogging in your own education; teaching is learning twice!
• Steven's early attraction to Elixir and the obsession and evangelism that followed.
• Concurrency visibility and differences between Elixir and other languages.
• Different tracks for learning; coming into Elixir as a beginner or as someone with experience.
• The evolution of thought around education and things that have changed at Elixir School.
• Learning that includes reasons why; you don't know what you don't know!
• Knowing your students and keeping them excited to maintain a passion for learning.
• Growing confidence and the benefits of great resources for the spread of increasing skills.
  
• Scratching your own itch; write the educational information that you cannot find yourself.
• Our guest's Elixir wish lists; more learning opportunities, widespread adoption and beginner-friendly content.
  
• Requests about Elixir from our guests, a few plugs and how to connect with them!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Sophie DeBenedetto — https://twitter.com/sm_debenedetto
Meryl Dakin — https://twitter.com/meryldakin
Steven Nunez — https://twitter.com/_stevennunez
Sean Callan — https://twitter.com/doomspork
System 76 — https://system76.com/
Flatiron — https://flatironschool.com/
Elixir School — https://elixirschool.com
GitHub — https://github.com/
Erlang — https://www.erlang.org/
Phoenix — https://www.phoenixframework.org/
Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/
The Developer's Guide to Content Creation — https://www.developersguidetocontent.com/
Stephanie Morillo — https://www.stephaniemorillo.co/
Elixir and The Beam: How Concurrency Really Works https://www.thegreatcodeadventure.com/elixir-and-the-beam-how-concurrency-really-works/

Special Guests: Sean Callan and Steven Nunez.