The Pragmatic Bookshelf | Erlang in Practice

I am looking into Erlang as part of my involvement with CouchDB, and I bumped into this Most Excellent production from the Pragmatic Programmers shelf. You actually sit with Kevin Smith, an Erlang expert, through a series of screencasts (downloadable onto your iPhone if you like) as he builds a system from soup to nuts.

I don't think there's a better way of learning a language than this. There are these little details about how to work with a language that just can't be covered in a book. Seeing someone work also helps you focus on approach, what's important to focus on, and in general getting a sense for the "gestalt" of the language and its runtime.

So much better than a book - books are good for reference, but just don't convey this "quality" of a technology like hanging out with someone who knows it.

http://www.pragprog.com/screencasts/v-kserl/erlang-in-practice