I was 56. It is keeping my brain plastic and paying the bills.
beanlanda
eddy147
52 when I switched. I went it to the deep-end. Now 56, full-time Elixir. Learned most by reading existing code and articles from hex. Now I think in terms of processes, not objects. Never too late to switch.
11
waseigo
I was 39 when I went all-in on Elixir, but I was not a professional programmer before that. Elixir clicked instantly. Three years later, my only regret is the time I wasted on Python before discovering Elixir in the summer of 2022.
11
cjbottaro
Was in my late 30’s when I got to start using it professionally, but like another commenter, it’s for a project I’m a “shareholder” for, so… grain of salt.
100%! It’s painful to go back to our legacy Ruby codebase now.
1
wallyfoo
51, been doing elixir where I can since 2018. My only regret was not jumping in sooner. Now my last significant web codebase is being ported from nodejs, and I couldn’t be happier.
5
mikesax
Hey, age is just a number! 
But having said that, the switch from OOP to functional programming was jarring for me and it took several tries to finally feel comfortable. What I love about functional programming is that everything is in front of you (ie: the code in the function, and the functions you are calling, not in a bunch of related dependencies and side effects). I was really discouraged when I first tried functional programming because I wanted to like it so bad (because of the simplicity) but my fingers kept falling into old object.method patterns when I was typing code. What frankly kept me going was one sentence in a book or a course (can’t remember which) from Dave Thomas where he said that Elixir didn’t really click for him the first time he tried it. I have much respect for Dave’s views on programming, and I first learned Ruby on Rails from him from a course he and Mike Clark were giving in Portland. So I figured that if Dave needs another try, I will give my self some grace and try again… and I’m very glad I did!
6
darraghenright
I was a hobbyist for a while, I was in my early 40s when I got the opportunity to choose Elixir for a project — I demonstrated some of its capabilities to my manager and he was impressed enough with it, so I got to choose it for a new product for some existing customers. It ended up being a great choice.
Since then I’ve done contract work with Elixir, and worked with a startup that used Elixir entirely. I’ve changed jobs since and I am not working with Elixir at all now — unfortunately Elixir roles are very thin on the ground here.
I have a lot of experience with Python, and I’m currently working with node. Where I have a choice, and it’s appropriate (often the case imho) Elixir is still my default choice. Love it.
2