[chrismccord]

I would say it goes much deeper than syntax and both Elixir/Erlang can co-exist happily just like Scala/Java. After jumping into Elixir, you'll eventually have to become familiar Erlang/OTP conventions, but starting with Erlang is not a requirement. You're right that guards/pattern matching/OTP leave you with language envy once you go back to your previous language of choice. Elixir does remove some pain points of Erlang, particularly around metaprogramming, polymorphism, and string handling. I will say after getting into the ecosystem, I can't believe the Erlang folks have been quietly "building the future" all these years while the rest of us largely ignored their innovations.