Black Lives Matter has my support. I’m a white man doing tech in Sweden. My commentary on the intricacies of systemic racism in the US has limited value so I’ll spare you all. But since I don’t particularly believe in silence I want to at least acknowledge that I’m aware of it, I’m paying attention and I try to spread what good I find.

My personal life is a little bit draining but also very exciting currently. I have a daughter, she’s one month old already. She’s a delight and a terror. Sleep is ok, not great. Time to write and code is severely limited. Currently writing this while her mother is feeding her, before getting up in the morning. Being a father is terrifying but seems pretty great.

Work-wise, me and one of my compatriots that has been working with me on and off through the end of his 2 year web dev education are working on a secret project. I’m bound to reveal more here on the Newsletter as I want eyes on it. For now it can remain mostly cloaked in private repo camoflage. I’m also seeing the client work line up for August when I start working in earnest again. This is reassuring in any society-shattering pandemic. But right now, I’m on parental leave.

Some of the work I’m lining up may also show up in the public eye with time. I’ll let you know if that’s the case.

Podcast recommendation: Elixir Outlaws

Find the podcast here.

I especially want you to keep an eye out when the video for their live episode from ElixirConf EU Virtual drops. They are a conversational podcast, rarely guests, mostly banter and usually Chris Keathley having strong opinions. And sometimes they end up talking about gardening. It is good listening and the podcast lives up to being ”the hallway track of the Elixir community” by being as much social as it is technical. The term hallway track meaning the social part of a conference outside of the talks.

Their live episode from EU Virtual focused on community a lot and I think seeing their faces helps put a smile to the opinions, put faces to the voices. And also, Anna joined, she is not always on the episodes which is a shame.

Can a community be too big?

I like the size of the Elixir community. It is fairly large and it is growing. But if you spend time on ElixirForum,, Twitter hashtags like #myelixirstatus and #elixirlang or the Slack channels for your projects of interest you will start to recognize the people that are actively engaging. On Slack I find #general, #phoenix and #ecto too high-traffic and I honestly only spend time in #nerves, #scenic and #lumen, they are delightful.

You will start recognizing the people and what they care about in their writing. And the community is small enough that if you involve yourself on a regular basis and contribute in different ways it can and will probably be noticed. I think the Elixir Mix podcast, the Elixir Weekly and Elixir Radar newsletters do this very well. I wrote blog posts, for my business and for my satisfaction and some of them found traction in the community. I was suprised to see my own work show up in newsletters I follow. And then I got an offer to be a guest on Elixir Mix. My first podcast appearance. Elixir Mix is very good at lifting up anyone who contributes something worth talking about. It is doing strong service to the community.

I’m getting a feel for the characters, the organizers and the pillars of this community. Partly through going to a few physical conferences and then more online. I never had this for Python. I feel like I know a few extremely high-profile names in Python. In JS and Node I know an odd handful of names from podcasts and going to Nordic.js once. But I wouldn’t even know where to start for approaching that community. It must be a tight subset, even React or Vue are probably too large to properly grasp, or it is by necessity broadcast to scale. I like a community and I think there is definitely a core of community to any language, ecosystem or project of these sizes. But becoming a part of it seems less possible to me, the larger it gets.

Elixir is seeing plenty of use. And there are lots of people using it without particularly engaging with the community. That’s all fine. What I’m saying is, I think this community is still at a size where you might have some luck finding a place in it. And I think it gives people a fair chance to shine if they want to. I appreciate that.

By now my daughter is back to sleep in the crib, my wife has gone off to get some more sleep in the guest room and I guess I should start my day. It was nice writing to you. If you have thoughts, reflections or just want to write back at me I’m available at lars@underjord.io.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate it.

- Lars Wikman