In this interview, Zach Daniel, a software engineer with a passion for Elixir, discusses his journey from using Node.js and RethinkDB to adopting Elixir, particularly for high-performance applications at Albert.io, now continuing his work at DockYard. Zach highlights the benefits of Elixir's tools, such as Ecto and Phoenix, which offered the robust database interaction needed for their projects. He describes his role in developing Spandex, the Datadog Elixir APM library, detailing the challenges of integrating effective monitoring and tracing capabilities to ensure seamless application performance without introducing bottlenecks. Zach emphasizes the simplicity and efficiency of Elixir compared to other languages and shares his experiences in managing state and concurrency. As Spandex gained popularity, Zach's engagement with the Elixir community grew, leading to further development and improvements. He continues to actively contribute to Spandex and is working on new projects that will utilize its core functionalities, with plans for native Datadog integration. The interview concludes with an invitation for developers to explore Datadog's platform and participate in community events.