I guess my point would be that Rust is also could be considered an esoteric niche language with a lot fewer engineers than Python, but I would choose Rust over Elixir because of the benefits.
I think PGs advice really depends on the founding team. Now it’s quite common to have only semi technical founders that make an engineering hire instead of the founder being an engineer, because languages like Python and JavaScript have commoditized the initial CRUD aspects of launching a product.
If your product is more technical and low level it makes sense, but if your building a HTTP SaaS app that connects to a database then chances are the difficulties and differentiation happen on the Product/Design level, and much less so on the engineering level unless you make it big.
I think PGs advice really depends on the founding team. Now it’s quite common to have only semi technical founders that make an engineering hire instead of the founder being an engineer, because languages like Python and JavaScript have commoditized the initial CRUD aspects of launching a product.
If your product is more technical and low level it makes sense, but if your building a HTTP SaaS app that connects to a database then chances are the difficulties and differentiation happen on the Product/Design level, and much less so on the engineering level unless you make it big.