
Ask HN: Is it worth learning a new programming language just to build a product? - throw20160915
I have a product idea in mind which I think would benefit from Erlang&#x27;s strengths. But I don&#x27;t know Erlang or Elixir.<p>Is it overkill to learn Elixir just so I can build this product on BEAM?
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jskopek
The last company I worked at was pretty flexible with using whatever
programming language made sense for the job, as long as everyone working on
that project was comfortable with it. As far as I'm aware, they've kept this
attitude to this day.

The biggest downside would appear to be the risk that new developers won't be
able to contribute to a project, but I've found this isn't really an issue;
most developers that I've met are pretty excited by the chance to use a new
language. That excitement may also offset the inertia from using a new
language.

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toast0
Working on a project that benefits from a language's strength is probably the
best way to learn that language. If you don't have time pressure, why not?

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o2l
I am in the exact same situation right now with Erlang/Elixir as the choice.
All I want for now is to get the basic functionality working and improve upon
it after that. But it takes some time to do that when you have not used the
language before. I plan to continue using Erlang/Elixir as my primary language
for some time to come, starting with this project. It all boiled down to
deciding the deadline for the product to go live. If I have time, I can choose
Erlang/Elixir, else I might have to go with something else initially and make
the switch later. I haven't made my decision yet, I hope there are some
insightful comments here which could help me decide too.

