[{"_1":2,"_64":-5,"_65":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_33":34,"_62":-5,"_63":-5},"root",{"_5":-5,"_6":-5,"_7":8,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_27":28},"user","shoppingCartId","shoppingCart",{"_9":10,"_11":12,"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":18,"_19":12},"count",0,"free",true,"updatedAt","2026-01-09T17:51:48.346Z","paymentGateway","STRIPE","cartItems",[],"loading","toast","locale","en","constants",{"_25":26},"paypalClientId","AX53Cwz8jR6rVVzzZiZNWWXl0dGagi-GZrjG-S3Ua14E5nrKMn7DxDQ730O4R8LusLPp49ALn6aRVaEy","publishers",{"_29":30,"_31":32},"companies",[],"universities",[],"routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_35":36,"_61":-5},"book",{"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48},"id","Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNjMwODk","title","The BEAM DYK Pocketbook","state","unpublished","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

Welcome to The BEAM DYK Pocketbook!

This book is a curated collection of my LinkedIn posts from the #BEAMDYK series, where I share insights, trivia, and fascinating details about the BEAM, the Erlang virtual machine, which was built in the 80's by Ericsson to automate telecom switches and now powers some of the world’s most robust, scalable, distributed, concurrent, and fault-tolerant systems, whether coded in Erlang, Elixir, or the newcomer Gleam.

This isn’t just a book for engineers or coding enthusiasts. It’s written with a broader audience in mind: entrepreneurs, business leaders, and tech-curious individuals who want to understand why the BEAM matters, how it adds value to business, and what makes it a unique value proposition for both businesses and engineers.

While most programming language runtimes are designed to execute code efficiently and as fast as possible, where system crashes are costly and often unavoidable within the capabilities of their runtimes, the BEAM is designed to keep systems running no matter what, embracing failure as a normal state. The design philosophy of the BEAM follows the principle of “let it crash,\" an approach that allows BEAM processes to fail and restart without impacting the overall system. This resilience is built in from the beginning and is one of the reasons why services built on the BEAM have industry-leading uptime and reliability.

For a more comprehensive and detailed tour of the BEAM, you will want to read The BEAM DYK Handbook, which dives into each DYK in this book and includes illustrations and diagrams to make concepts easier to understand.

","authors",[49],{"_37":50,"_51":52,"_5":53},"Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6UHJvZHVjdEF1dGhvci82NjgzNA","name","Paulo Renato",{"_54":55},"avatar",{"_56":57,"_58":59,"_60":12},"url","https://d39qdlcrvnra4b.cloudfront.net/avatars/3430369/medium/exadra37-profile.jpeg?1736894172","styleName","medium","exists","currentUser","routes/_store+/_layout","routes/_store+/_readers+/_layout","actionData","errors"]

Email the Author