It is not uncommon to hear about how elegant Functional Programming is. Granted, some notions of beauty do have their place in the world of software development, but that alone is not a sufficiently compelling reason to endeavour into the unknown.

In this talk, I will describe my (somewhat idealized) journey from the world of imperative, Java-style programming down the never-ending path of Functional Programming. We will be motivated by simple and relatable concerns, such as: the wish to have less bugs, to write simpler tests and to have altogether more predictable software. This will almost inevitably lead us to re-discover and embrace Functional techniques and the benefits that follow.