Most professional programming is done in already existing code and new projects often have to respect existing standards. You rarely get to choose what language to use.
I was recently asked to recommend a language for a new team. My boss (who won't be writing or even reading any of the code) suggested Python. His reasoning: it's what the kids are learning in college these days.
So here I am as the team Senior, looking at current and future team members and deciding on whether to be selfish and choose what's good for me, or trying to figure out what makes something good for the team. Is it better to pick something with a large hiring pool? Is it better to pick something with fewer footguns? Is it better to pick something with higher performance? Is C# really ok if we need Mac support? Is Swift ok for one-off glue apps that run on Linux? Is Zig too young? If a team of five has a Java geek, a Rust zealot, a C# fan, and somebody who only knows Python, can we just agree to all learn and use Go? If I know my replacement will undo whatever I choose, does it really matter?
So here I am as the team Senior, looking at current and future team members and deciding on whether to be selfish and choose what's good for me, or trying to figure out what makes something good for the team. Is it better to pick something with a large hiring pool? Is it better to pick something with fewer footguns? Is it better to pick something with higher performance? Is C# really ok if we need Mac support? Is Swift ok for one-off glue apps that run on Linux? Is Zig too young? If a team of five has a Java geek, a Rust zealot, a C# fan, and somebody who only knows Python, can we just agree to all learn and use Go? If I know my replacement will undo whatever I choose, does it really matter?