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Author seems to conflate innovation with progress.

Just because something is innovative (like in his example introducing kotlin when everyone else is using Java) doesn’t mean it will lead to progress.

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But it seems that progress requires innovation, and some innovations will fail while others will succeed, driving the "evolution" of technology a la survival of the fittest. Ideally anyways, as just with real evolution "fittest" doesn't always line up with our human perception of "best".

Progress requires innovation but it doesn't necessarily require your innovation. Progress happens when an innovation spreads. By the time it's spread across half the landscape it doesn't look like innovation any more, it's just how things are done. But it's still progress when it gets from 80% to 90%.

This is like saying that there is no point in going to vote because one vote will not make a difference.

Introducing kotlin during the Java 8 era was innovative. In 2024 with Java 23 out you aren't gaining anywhere near as much.

Does Java 23 have coroutines?

No, but it has VirtualThreads and while they are not the same it gives you similar performance benefits without having to deal with "async-y"/callback stuff

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