The JVM is not magic, neither are Java programmers magicians, but I think the reason magical terms are used to describe Java systems is that the ecosystem had lots and lots of time to develop libraries and abstractions (a few of which happen to be of the right kind, read: leak just the right amount). Your typical Java programmer is well aware what it takes to implement a battle-proof connection pool, and will not attempt to implement their own. To them, adding the config stanza to enable a connection pool indeed feels like magic. Other platforms, that come with preconfigured connection pools, do not leak this to the programmer, and 80% of their users will not know what a connection pool is.