Across the globe, in basements, factories, buildings and out of doors, millions of tiny (and not-so-tiny!) computers chatter with each other, constantly. But what do they say? And how can we talk to them?

This talk is an introduction to binary pattern matching, a powerful syntax feature which Elixir has inherited from Erlang. When you learn it, it will open the doors to a world of communication that can otherwise seem obscure. During the talk, we will explore how binary pattern matching can be leveraged to implement low-level, binary communication formats in a succinct and performant manner.