The Leanpub Podcast feat. Isaak Tsalicoglou, Author of Northwind Elixir Traders
In this Leanpub podcast episode, co-founder Len Epp interviews Isaak Tsalicoglou, author of Northwind Elixir Traders: Learn Elixir and database modeling with Ecto and SQLite, all in one project.
Episode Details
Isaak Tsalicoglou is the author of Northwind Elixir Traders: Learn Elixir and database modeling with Ecto and SQLite, all in one project
In this Leanpub podcast episode, co-founder Len Epp interviews Isaak Tsalicoglou, author of Northwind Elixir Traders: Learn Elixir and database modeling with Ecto and SQLite, all in one project. They discuss Isaak’s professional background in digital transformation, how a conversation with a friend sparked his obsession with functional programming, and why Elixir stood out as a powerful and elegant language for modern software development.
Isaak explains how his book combines real-world business logic with hands-on technical learning by recreating the classic Northwind database in Elixir using Ecto and SQLite. The conversation also explores his passion for education, his iterative writing process, and the balance between accessibility and technical depth when writing for developers.
They touch on the open-source mindset, and the psychological elements of learning and productivity. This episode offers both practical programming insights and inspiration for anyone interested in combining creativity, entrepreneurship, software engineering, and writing books..
This interview was recorded on March 24, 2025.
About the Book
Built for the curious, this isn’t your average programming book—it’s nearly 500 pages of hands-on mentorship beyond coding, fusing core skills in Elixir, Ecto, and SQLite with business experience and R&D tenacity. Think of it as a $500 course distilled into one powerhouse resource, with tons of learning-by-doing, in a single project. Acquire hard skills in Elixir and database modeling with Ecto's migrations, changesets, and more, re-imagining a classic database that millions around the world have used before for learning. By fearlessly ditching the "happy path", this immersive, exploratory, memorable, project-based tutorial helps you confidently tackle real-world projects with Elixir and Ecto.
Step back into the nostalgic realm of 90s database exploration and learning with a modern twist! Remember the "Northwind Traders" database from the early days of Microsoft Access? It's back and ready for a reimagining in the dynamic world of the Elixir programming language and its Ecto database layer.
Join me on a learning exploration as we transform the familiar "Northwind Traders" into the captivating "Northwind Elixir Traders" through database migrations, table alterations, schema definitions, CRUD operations, references, queries, changesets and the core of what you need to use Ecto productively.
This isn't your typical Elixir or Ecto tutorial. Instead of pursuing the usual "happy path" reflected in the official documentation and "Getting Started" guide, we'll dive into the complexities and nuances of database implementation, offering a refreshing exploration that goes beyond the ordinary.
Our adventure begins by embracing the simplicity of SQLite over the conventional choice of PostgreSQL. This deliberate trade-off in favor of simplicity against feature-completeness introduces challenges and roadblocks that will enrich your learning experience as we navigate through the intricacies of schema design, migrations, primary and foreign keys, relational structures between the different tables, and queries that return meaningful insights.
Discover the joy of experimentation as we encounter unexpected hurdles and exercize our Elixir skills in figuring out why things don't work as expected, and how to still get things done, regardless. Through these challenges, you'll gain invaluable insights into problem-solving and critical thinking with Elixir and Ecto.
Embrace the ethos of fearless exploration as we delve deeper into Ecto's capabilities, focusing on the art of reading documentation and adapting to unforeseen obstacles. With each chapter, you'll elevate your understanding of Ecto, empowering yourself to tackle real-world database projects with confidence and finesse instead of with copy-paste operations and hopes and wishes that it all works out in the end.
For a curious Elixir newcomer intending to improve their skills in the programming language itself and/or in modeling databases for a microservice, a backend, or a Phoenix or Phoenix LiveView app using Ecto (and any supported database, beyond SQLite), "Northwind Elixir Traders" promises an immersive learning experience that's both enriching and unforgettable.
About the Author
Isaak Tsalicoglou writes about all aspects of organizations turning their knowledge about markets, customers, and technology into a competitive advantage through the judicious use of technology, vigorous collaboration across functions and locations, and an entrepreneurial mindset… but also writes about how hype, dogmatism, agency issues, culture clash and misaligned incentives prevent organizations from doing so.
Leanpub book LAUNCH 🚀 Northwind Elixir Traders by Isaak Tsalicoglou
Clips From This Episode of the Frontmatter Podcast
