I have struggled all year with learning Elixir. I headed out on the wrong path so it my fault not Elixir's. I started by looking for courses in places like Udemy and YouTube. Then I looked for books on Amazon. At the time, everything I found was out of date or difficult to get into.

What I should have done first instead is start by reading straight through the excellent Elixir guide : https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/introduction.html. I recently spent about two weeks spending an hour per day going through the guide and it has given me a much better picture of the language and where I might want to go with it.

After tossing out dozens of outdated programming books over the years I had shifted my learning approach to video instead of reading. By reading the Elixir guide I got more knowledge per minute of reading than I would have ever gotten watching videos.

The algorithm got me. My new motto is "back to books" and here is my re-started learning Elixir plan:

1) Read [the guide](https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/introduction.html](https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/introduction.html).

2) Start using IEx or LiveBook for any day to day scripting that I would normally use Python for.

3) Try to complete a few Elixir exercises each week to keep the language fresh in my mind.

4) Read the Programmer Passport: Elixir book.

5) Read the Programmer Passport: OTP book.

6) Complete the Phoenix guide/tutorial.

7) Build a side project with Elixir (most likely Phoenix Based)

8) If I still feel like I need another pass over the language, buy and read the new Elixir in Action book.

9) (This is a stretch goal) Work through the Machine Learning in Elixir book.

I've never made a learning plan for a programming language before. That felt nice. It is going to take about a year to complete all that but I'm excited for it!