[aej]

I came to Elixir from another untyped language (python) but I've never had any issues.

Elixir code often relies heavily on pattern matching return values (ok/error tuples or Structs) so that helps along with typespecs.

The fact that the language is compiled is also a big help when it comes to avoiding run-time errors while developing locally.

The other thing I appreciate about elixir coming from python (more specifically Django) is that most application-specific code is just modules and functions. There is none of the indirection and abstractions-upon-abstraction I used to have to grok in big python codebases.