1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="author" content="Loïc Hoguin based on a design from (Soft10) Pol Cámara">
<meta name="generator" content="Hugo 0.30.2" />
<title>Nine Nines: The elephant in the room</title>
<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,700,400italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
<link href="/css/99s.css?r=1" rel="stylesheet">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/img/ico/favicon.ico">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-114.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-72.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/img/ico/apple-touch-icon-57.png">
</head>
<body class="">
<header id="page-head">
<div id="topbar" class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="span2">
<h1 id="logo"><a href="/" title="99s">99s</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="span10">
<div id="side-header">
<nav>
<ul>
<li class="active"><a title="Hear my thoughts" href="/articles">Articles</a></li>
<li><a title="Watch my talks" href="/talks">Talks</a></li>
<li><a title="Read the docs" href="/docs">Documentation</a></li>
<li><a title="Request my services" href="/services">Consulting & Training</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<ul id="social">
<li>
<a href="https://github.com/ninenines" title="Check my Github repositories"><img src="/img/ico_github.png" data-hover="/img/ico_github_alt.png" alt="Github"></a>
</li>
<li>
<a title="Keep in touch!" href="http://twitter.com/lhoguin"><img src="/img/ico_microblog.png" data-hover="/img/ico_microblog_alt.png"></a>
</li>
<li>
<a title="Contact me" href="mailto:[email protected]"><img src="/img/ico_mail.png" data-hover="/img/ico_mail_alt.png"></a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</header>
<div id="contents">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="span9 maincol">
<article class="blog_item">
<header>
<h1 class="lined-header"><span>The elephant in the room</span></h1>
<p class="date">
<span class="day">26</span>
<span class="month">Mar</span>
</p>
</header>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Have you ever tried telling someone why they should use
Erlang? You boast the smaller code size, the auto healing
mechanisms, the distribution and they seem really excited.
They wonder why they never heard about Erlang before. And
then you show them what the code looks like. All excitement
goes away. The smiles disappear. Their face starts
becoming really serious.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You lost them. You know you lost them. They comment on the
syntax, or perhaps you do, already admitting defeat. It’s
unlike anything they have ever used before. And they will
most likely end up not using it.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>What about people who already know what the syntax looks
like? As soon as you mention Erlang, the topic of the syntax
comes in. It’s like nothing else matters.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Perhaps the topic of syntax didn’t come up. But they’re
still not going to try Erlang because of it.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You’re probably not having these kinds of interactions at
Erlang conferences. This doesn’t happen with people who are
already somewhat interested in, or need, the features that
Erlang provides. With them the syntax is at worst a minor
inconvenience.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This happens because most developers are familiar with
syntaxes that look nothing like Erlang. To be clear, I
include language features and other concepts like objects
as part of "syntax" here. Familiarity is a very important
factor to drive adoption.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You can see an example of that in the Elixir world, where
the majority of people come from Ruby or already knew and
liked Ruby. The 2016 survey tells us that 59% of Elixir
developers were using Ruby primarily before. That’s in
large part because of the syntax. They will deny it of
course and find other reasons. And yet, we don’t see such
a strong adoption of Erlang from Ruby developers, before
or after Elixir appeared.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Side note: have you ever wondered why the Elixir community
is, I quote, much friendlier than the Ruby community?
Despite having much of the same people?</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Before we continue, let me be clear. I love the Erlang
syntax. It is simple and explicit. It is powerful, especially
when dealing with binary data. It has very few quirks.
It has little to no ambiguity. It’s great. Except for
persuading people to use it.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Over the years I have been writing Erlang, I have seen
very few people point out that the syntax slows down
adoption. We have no problem with it, so why would others?
At the same time, people coming to Erlang come to solve
a real problem they’re having, so the syntax is fairly
secondary. Even if they hate it at first, they know they
can solve their problems despite the syntax.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You don’t build a popular product or language by solving
people’s problems though. In general you end up solving
some problems and creating new problems. No, you build
a popular product by <strong>convincing people to use it</strong>. And
you make them stay with your product by making them
<strong>commit</strong> to using it.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Take MongoDB for example. It didn’t become popular by
working, or even by being practical. It wasn’t performing
its primary function and was losing people’s data. That
didn’t stop it from becoming popular. Smart people would
knowingly use a database that was losing data. Think about
that for a minute.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>MongoDB of course had a huge marketing machine, and they
focused on that. They helped organize many meetups all
over the world, complete with various swag items given
for free, including a small handbook about MongoDB. All
people had to do was show up.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>They didn’t go tell people to look at all the weaknesses
their product had. They focused on the strengths. On
what would convince people to try it. They would go
to meetups, discuss with others, commit to try it (or
try it at meetups directly), and by doing so sell MongoDB
to themselves.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>How do we get people to meetups though? That’d be the
first step: you need to <strong>catch their attention</strong>.
I believe MongoDB did this using benchmark results.
Ironic isn’t it? MongoDB gets fast benchmark results
because they lose data, and this gets everyone to buy
into the product.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The key points to remember about this are:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
catch people’s attention
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
show your product’s strengths
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
make people take a commitment
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Once they commit to something, you win. Everyone will not
end up ultimately using your product of course, but it’s
at the very least become a consideration. It’s on their
mind. Their resolve will be stronger when they ultimately
try it and inevitably run into issues.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Erlang’s syntax is a weakness. Almost nobody looks at the
Erlang syntax and falls in love with it at first sight.
No, it takes time to learn it and understand how good it
is. You need to sell Erlang to people without showing
the Erlang syntax. If you do show it, then you need to
hide the parts that feel alien. Function calls are OK.
Recursion, not so much. Maps are OK. Records, not.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Avoiding code is not always possible when you try
to sell it, especially to developers. You can however
prepare them to accept the alien syntax by admitting
that the syntax is not perfect before you show it.
You can do this while praising it at the same time.
For example, "the syntax is a little out there, but
it matches the concepts perfectly, it will all make
sense when you start learning".</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This might not be the best introduction. Someone will
need to A/B test it to find the one that gives the
best results. But that should give you ideas.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>When something terrible happens, mentioning that this
isn’t the end of the world <strong>before</strong> you tell others what
happened will soften their reaction. When someone
breaks your favorite item and cries over it calling
themselves stupid, it’s harder to get mad at them,
compared to the same event with no emotional reaction.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Our behavior is largely dependent on what’s at the
top of our mind, so it’s up to you to take advantage
of this to make your case in the best conditions.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Next time you try to make someone use Erlang, remember
that you should aim for getting a spoken commitment
out of them, if possible before you show the syntax.
If that’s not possible, then prepare them to accept
the flaws or the weirdness before they see them.</p></div>
</article>
</div>
<div class="span3 sidecol">
<h3>More articles</h3>
<ul id="articles-nav" class="extra_margin">
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy-2.1.0/">Cowboy 2.1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy-2.0.0/">Cowboy 2.0</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy-2.0.0-rc.2/">Cowboy 2.0 release candidate 2</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy-2.0.0-rc.1/">Cowboy 2.0 release candidate 1</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/the-elephant-in-the-room/">The elephant in the room</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/dont-let-it-crash/">Don't let it crash</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy-2.0.0-pre.4/">Cowboy 2.0 pre-release 4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/ranch-1.3/">Ranch 1.3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/ml-archives/">Mailing list archived</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/website-update/">Website update</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/erlanger-playbook-september-2015-update/">The Erlanger Playbook September 2015 Update</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/erlanger-playbook/">The Erlanger Playbook</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/erlang-validate-utf8/">Validating UTF-8 binaries with Erlang</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/on-open-source/">On open source</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/the-story-so-far/">The story so far</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/cowboy2-qs/">Cowboy 2.0 and query strings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/january-2014-status/">January 2014 status</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/farwest-funded/">Farwest got funded!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/erlang.mk-and-relx/">Build Erlang releases with Erlang.mk and Relx</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/xerl-0.5-intermediate-module/">Xerl: intermediate module</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/xerl-0.4-expression-separator/">Xerl: expression separator</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/erlang-scalability/">Erlang Scalability</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/xerl-0.3-atomic-expressions/">Xerl: atomic expressions</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/xerl-0.2-two-modules/">Xerl: two modules</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/xerl-0.1-empty-modules/">Xerl: empty modules</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/ranch-ftp/">Build an FTP Server with Ranch in 30 Minutes</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ninenines.eu/articles/tictactoe/">Erlang Tic Tac Toe</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Feedback</h3>
<p>Feel free to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">email us</a>
if you found any mistake or need clarification on any of the
articles.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="span6">
<p id="scroll-top"><a href="#">↑ Scroll to top</a></p>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="mailto:[email protected]" title="Contact us">Contact us</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/ninenines/ninenines.github.io" title="Github repository">Contribute to this site</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</div>
<div class="span6 credits">
<p><img src="/img/footer_logo.png"></p>
<p>Copyright © Loïc Hoguin 2012-2016</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</footer>
<script src="/js/custom.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
|
