You’d bet wrong. Say I want to add two numbers and ship it to prod. In Python, that’s one line and an scp. In Java, that’s at least three, a compile step, and an scp. By definition I’m more productive in Python due to the language tradeoffs. That’s reducing to absurdity but the principle holds to a solution of any complexity, particularly in SRE/ops.

This really rears its head when Go and Rust shops say “oh let’s do all our operational scripting in the same language, too.” It seems nice in theory but is a complete mess in operations. As an SRE manager, I have data to back up the assertion that a compile step gets directly in the way, particularly in an outage situation (we need to recompile the script with a flag to change it - and we are usually pushed toward CI/CD for that outcome). If you are asking this of your operations teams, they absolutely hate you regardless of their experience with the language.

I have 21 years writing Java and three writing Python and I’ll reach for Python for “move files from directory to other directory based on heuristics” loooooong before I touch Java for the same purpose, and that’s a high bar to even get there beyond doing it in a shell. Reducing this discussion to familiarity with a language is a complete red herring and dismisses every argument the other side has with “if you were just better at Java this wouldn’t be an issue,” which is flat out wrong.

Right tool, right job. I see I’m -2 before I’m finished editing typos which I think speaks to the article’s point about language ideology more than anything.