Code BEAM Europe is gearing up for late in the year in the Netherlands. They've acquired what looks like a lovely venue, they have some interesting plans for shaking things up and I'm glad to see a bit of spring in the step of what is always a lovely conference.

The CFP is open. I'm not involved but am probably attending.

28th of Sep - 3rd of Oct. Varberg, Sweden.

It is an absolute Elixir festival so plan accordingly.

• 28th Sep, Workshop day 1. Free admission, registration required
• 29th Sep, Workshop day 2. Free admission, registration required
• 30th Sep
  • Conference day 1, ticket required
  • Evening: Lightning talks @ Bank 28
• 1st Oct
  • Conference day 2, ticket required
  • Evening: Karaoke @ Bank 28
• 2nd Oct
  • Conference day 3, ticket required
  • Evening: After party @ Villa Celine, DJ sets by Sam Aaron (reservations available)
• 3rd Oct
  • Ash Summit (details coming)
  • Bonus Elixir event (details coming)

Speakers announced

The speakers are all announced! Check the line-up. This is set up to be glorious.

Workshops

Absolutely top tier international knowers and doers sharing their know-how on Elixir and related topics. I could not be more excited. And I really hope you take advantage of the opportunity of spending time with the workshop hosts, the community and socializing the best way we programmers can, with hands on keyboards.

Tickets

Close to half the tickets are gone. We are already seeing the uptick from having announced speakers. So probably get yours while it is possible.

Sponsors

If you think your company can and should support the conference we are actively talking to sponsors now. You can just respond to this email.

The invisible makes indivisible

One of the more influential books on software as a trade and organisational practice in recent years is Accelerate. To a large extent because it did science, it measured outcomes, practices and investigated correlations. For some the results were deeply counter-intuitive and to some they confirmed something they felt in their bones.

It underscored the value of a solid test suite. Carefulness, diligence, rigor. It also underscored the value of shipping, moving fast and building up velocity, iterating quickly. And it underscored the value of culture, team dynamics and psychological safety.

Tests are not a value in and of itself but it is a great mechanism for building certainty and trust in what you are doing and how it functions. Iterating quickly is the way you get reps in. Shipping frequently means that the friction gets chipped away, the muscle builds up, the joints never stiffen. And the team dynamics, trust in your peers and trust that you are working towards shared goals rather than working against each other are critical for keeping friction low.

"Keeping friction low" is a very mechanical and unemotional way of looking at it. People that trust each other take criticism of their work better. Take more care to make sure things will go well for one another. Are happier and more willing to put effort in. It feels better and is more satisfying which is inherently motivating.

The value of shipping often is not primarily about making the version number increment quickly or getting a lot of features out. It betrays any weaknesses in the underlying foundation and forces an org to reckon with them.

A hard grip on when things ship, go out, move forward is almost inevitably a bottle-neck and a trust issue. It is a problem. There are cases where gates are legally mandated or the risk trade-off is significant. There are also many known ways to achieve strong iteration within those bounds.

btw sloppy use of LLMs can very easily tank hard-won trust, but this is not about LLMs

In community work I see the exact same patterns. People that iterate quick find each other, cross-pollinate and engage deeper in the community. Through meeting in person or spending time in DMs trust grows and friction is removed. If Zach Daniel (Ash framework guy) asks me for something that isn't too weird I'll just take it as given that it is worthwhile. I extend a fair bit of default trust to new people as well. Some grow it, some burn it immediately.

The things that get done in the community, in the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation, in the ecosystem. The majority of it is greased by relationships and trust. There are plenty of people I don't know but who I know of and when they show up we don't start at zero. It is exciting to have an excuse to do something together with a new person who you already know does good stuff.

This is the mycelium thing. Thin strands and thick ropes connect the various clusters of the fungi that is our community. A newly interested developer is a spore that plops down, finds some moisture and starts growing. In whatever region the plopped down they start extending strands and if they find other strands they become joined to the network. There are weak connections, there are strong connections. The majority of the connections aren't visible, aren't public, aren't formal in any sense. And they do most of the work.

This is how society is as well. Families, friends and support networks make the world go around. And it is the connective tissue that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. That's where I trust my future earnings, that's where I trust my enjoyment in participating, that's where I find my encouragement. It is also where we have great human challenges of course.

Even if you "just do Elixir" or "am interested in Nerves" you are part of it. I recommend connecting more strands, always.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate you.