I'm sorry you had such a hard time getting into Elixir. Dave Thomas's book on Elixir is a very good introduction and there are a few other Elixir books out there that can get you started really quickly.
The issue really starts when you start writing web servers. I always advise that anyone who wants to start using Phoenix learns how to use Plug first. Phoenix is very macro heavy which can give that magic-is-happening feeling when you run your app, but looking through the Phoenix source code and using Plug is a great way of getting your head around what is actually happening behind the scenes.
Elixir is incredibly powerful and I find myself being more productive with it than with most other languages. TDD and integration testing is also surprisingly easy.
The issue really starts when you start writing web servers. I always advise that anyone who wants to start using Phoenix learns how to use Plug first. Phoenix is very macro heavy which can give that magic-is-happening feeling when you run your app, but looking through the Phoenix source code and using Plug is a great way of getting your head around what is actually happening behind the scenes.
Elixir is incredibly powerful and I find myself being more productive with it than with most other languages. TDD and integration testing is also surprisingly easy.