[throwaway74567]

I see Java/Kotlin as a secret weapon for startups. Too often I read about startups that struggle with immature libraries, smaller eco systems and reinventing basic functionality. Problems that they would not have if they chose a mature technology.

These blog posts mentions a company that has to write their own database library, auth services or other basic functionality. Sometimes they fix so many issues with the core language that they become close partners with the core developers of the programming language. I can't help wonder if the competition also reads the post and just smiles before they go back to actually solving a business problem. To me it's a symptom of choosing the wrong stack, even though working on non-business related problems may be more rewarding to the individual.

[erik_seaberg]

I’m reminded of “Fire and Motion:”

> Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET—All New! Are these technological imperatives? The result of an incompetent design group that needs to reinvent data access every goddamn year? (That’s probably it, actually.) But the end result is just cover fire. The competition has no choice but to spend all their time porting and keeping up, time that they can’t spend writing new features.