&quot;practical&quot; as in: the programing model fits the problem domain model of modern systems.<p>But, &quot;practical&quot; doesn&#x27;t show up on everybody&#x27;s radar much these days with so much effort focused around fads-of-the-half-decade.<p>Erlang is made by professionals with decades of experience who grow the system towards being the most stable, scalable, safe, and as understandable as possible.  People use Erlang, solve problems, stay quiet, then make money using it.<p>On the other hand, the thought leader these days seems to be Go (even though it&#x27;s made by out of touch weirdos (review: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.evanmiller.org&#x2F;four-days-of-go.html)" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.evanmiller.org&#x2F;four-days-of-go.html)</a>) and has a creepy cult&#x2F;fanatical following more suited to tribal sportsball teams than what we would expect from professional technical work needing to be stable over the long term.